Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair: A History of Pre-Exilic Sith
by Ooffo Rancoofsis
Summary: An in-universe academic history of the Sith focusing on key figures who lived before the Dark Jedi Exile and their relation to the Order as a whole.
1. Ch 1: Prologue

A New Concise History of the Sith

By (Anonymous)

(1st edition published 143 ABY)

Prologue

With the return in recent years of the Sith, it is necessary to compile a new edition of Sith history, both of the ancient people and of the numerous offshoot sith orders. There have been many Sith histories compiled throughout the years, notable examples being those by professors Murk Lundi and Ingo Wavlud, but in recent times they've become rather out of date. The Sith in recent times were able to suppress a staggering amount of information of their Order's origins and manipulations and some suspect that it will be centuries before the extent of their machinations are uncovered.

With new information being discovered almost daily about the history and dealings of the modern Sith Rule of Two and One Sith, some would argue that any present work should focus primarily on covering their history. However, this approach is short sighted. If one is to understand the Sith, one should study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of contemporary historians. Therefore, I endeavor to set out a history from the origins of the Sith and trace their history up to the present day.

As I intend this to be a concise history accessible to those with minimal background in the field as well as to experts, I will be omitting great swaths of information. There is a common misunderstanding that history is the result of the actions of a few great men. While this is erroneous, the Sith are a great example of why this mindset persists. In order to not bore the reader with endless facts and dates, I endeavor to detail the Sith using notable figures as points of reference. Therefore, this history will be semi-biographical.

With that clear, I believe the best way to start is by detailing what this is not. Some mistakenly equate the Sith with the 'dark side.' This is not a history of the dark side or a philosophical treatise on the Force, but a history of the Sith people and their ideologies. On a similar note, some believe that the Sith are the 'antithesis' of the Jedi and have been around since their beginning, and there is no hope in destroying their ideology since it will exist as long as the Jedi survive. This mindset is misleading on so many levels, primarily, it seems to equate the Sith with the dark side rather than treating them as they are. The Sith, from the point of view of the Jedi order's 25,000+ year history, are only one of many dark side wielding enemies they've faced. These other dark side orders have all come and gone, and while the Sith are resilient, they are not indestructible.

The typical start date for the founding of the Order of the Sith Lords, or the main branch of the Sith, is 6900 BBY. This is the supposed date when the dark Jedi exile Ajunta Pall beheaded the Sith king Hakagram Graush and assumed the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith, thereby fusing the pureblood Sith people with the teachings of generations of dark Jedi. Now the actual date may have been a few years later, but scholars throughout the centuries have given this as the date of the birth of the Sith, and as such I will do the same. However, it is important to cover their prehistory as well as the history of the Order proper.

Sith Prehistory can be divided into three eras: The Age of the Gods, the Age of the First Empires, and the Age of Heresy.

The Age of the Gods (circa. 100,000-30,000 BBY) is called such due to the vast number of archaeological references to the 'Immortal Gods of the Sith.' The Sith were thought to have been created around 100,000 BBY by the ancient race known as the Celestials, although the identity of their actual creators is disputed. It is believed that this race created the Sith to act as Force-sensitive servants to whom they taught the dark side to. This race eventually went extinct but they lived on in myths and legends as a pantheon of divine figues. This age is characterized by the sheer mystery that surrounds it. There is little evidence to suggest that the Sith after 100,000 BBY maintained a large interplanetary empire. Instead, scholars believe that the Sith existed as a variety of superstitious tribes that carried on the wisdom of their gods.

The Age of the First Empires (circa. 30,000-27,700 BBY) is called such due to the multiple Sith empires that rose to achieve interplanetary dominion. This era began with the Killik-Sith War, which resulted in a unification of the Sith people and offworlder technology falling into their hands. The Sith then began a series of early conquests of nearly planets. Eventually the Sith were invaded by the Rakata but were able to drive them off. The era ends with the death of the Sith'ari Adas, the Bombing of Korriban, and subsequent victory over the Rakata resulting in the Sith gaining powerful technology but lacking in unified leadership.

The Age of Heresy (circa. 27,700-6,900 BBY) is called such due to the frequent references to 'heresy' in almost every archaeological fragment discovered dating from this era. With their homeworld reduced to a radioactive waste, the sith made several conquests of nearby systems leaving behind many sites of learning. However, constant war and little understanding of the Rakatan technology resulted in the Sith being reduced to a much more primitive state. The Sith of this era would often cluster around ancient spacefaring tech and depositories of knowledge with a religious passion. They were determined to preserve these teaching through any means necessary. Any attempt to unify the Sith of this era failed as the groups were in perpetual war with 'heretics' or those who did not follow the same set of ancient teachings. This era ended with the arrival of the dark Jedi exiles, or Jen'jidai.

The history of the Sith Order proper can be divided into six main eras: The Ancient Sith, the Old Sith, the True Sith, the New Sith, the Rule of Two Sith, and the One Sith. It should be noted that these designations only apply to those groups that obtained galactic significance. Other Sith orders such as the Mecrosa Order and the Lost Tribe of the Sith have histories that span multiple eras and as such will be dealt with separately.

The Ancient Sith (circa. 6,900-5,000 BBY) expanded throughout Sith Space but remained, for the most part, isolated from the rest of the galaxy. This era is characterized by constant wars, but none so bad to cause the species as a whole to revert to primitivism. However, the lack of devotion to anything but infighting led to a forgetfulness and stagnation of technological innovation. This led to the Sith adopting a strange hybrid of primitive and space age technology. Most teachings of this era are devoted to Sith Alchemy and Sorcery. This era culminated in the Great Hyperspace War which decimated Sith society. In the War's aftermath, the Sith Lord Vitiate assumed control of all sith forces and retreated to the unknown regions where the True Sith Empire flourished.

The Old Sith (circa. 5,000-3,680) are the scattered remains of the Ancient Sith given new life. The main faction, the True Sith, or so they claimed to be, remained hidden in the unknown regions behind a tangled web of mass shadows preventing hyperspace travel. Despite this, they had considerable influence on the rest of the galaxy through subterfuge. Back in known space, this era is characterized by several powerful Sith Lords and their factions rising from each other's ashed. The first major manifestation of the ancient Sith teachings was in the Naddist cult. This cult as well as the Krath, paved the way for the fallen Jedi Exar Kun to revive the Sith Order into the Brotherhood of the Sith during the Great Sith War. Following this came the Revanchist Sith Empire which drew upon many of the teaching facilities the Brotherhood used as well as many ancient sites and relics. This culminated in the Dark Wars in which the Sith Triumvirate were able to successfully wipe out the Jedi Order, although they were quickly defeated and the Jedi rose again. This age ended when the first of the True Sith attacked the galaxy at large.

The True Sith (circa. 3,680-2,000 BBY) are different from the Old Sith as where the Old Sith looked to the past for their teachings, the True Sith looked to the Jedi for their teachings becoming like a dark mirror. The Sith of this era engaged in a series of wars with the Republic at large, but they eventually lost power due to infighting and disintegrated after a few hundred years. The Sith empire broke and eventually territories shifted to secular governments, many of which eventually joined the Republic. The Sith as a whole was so divided that they suffered many fates. Some orders became even more fanatical and went underground as cults, while others were able to modify their beliefs to a more liberal position becoming like Jedi to their territories, some even went as far as to join the Jedi en masse. This age ended with the Sith Holocaust which killed almost all pureblood Sith marking the final transition from a people to an ideology.

The New Sith (circa. 2,000-1,000 BBY) are the result of the Fourth Great Schism in the Jedi Order. Darth Ruin then rose to power used these exiles to reunite various Sith cults and nations. This resulted in a series of civil wars in the Republic which shattered any hope of a stable and unified galaxy leading to the Republic Dark Age. Sith factions broke off and waged a series of wars with each other and what was left of the Republic. Eventually, Lord Kaan was able to unify these factions by seating the heads of each on a single powerful governing body, the Brotherhood of Darkness. This era ended with the Seventh Battle of Ruusan where the Sith were wiped out and thought to be extinct.

The Rule of Two Sith (circa. 1,000 BBY-41 ABY) were created by Darth Bane reorganizing the Sith Order to prevent infighting. For a thousand years, with few exceptions, there were only two Sith alive at any given time, a master and an apprentice. They worked to take control of the Republic by manipulating events from behind the scenes, rather than through open war. This was frighteningly successful as it culminated in the rise of the Galactic Empire. After the Empire fell, this line of Sith did not quite die, for they were briefly revived by a fallen Jedi who became known as Darth Caedus.

The One Sith (circa. 41 ABY- present) are the result of a fallen Jedi who became known as Darth Krayt. The One Sith is characterized by looking to the Sith's very origins and using their teachings. Due to the fractured state of the galaxy, the One Sith were able to remain under the radar and achieve in a hundred years what it took the Rule of Two a thousand years to accomplish. However, the One Sith were regarded by followers of past Sith traditions as an embarrassing accident. Sure enough, the One Sith eventually fell and their order was left in ruin much like the past Sith orders from which they failed to learn from.

In conclusion, the history of the Sith is a very complicated and messy affair. The purpose of this work is to give an outline of the major players to demonstrate their influence on the order as a whole.


	2. Ch 2: The Sith Gods

Ch.2: The Sith Gods

To understand the Age of the Gods, it is necessary to understand what the Gods of the Sith are as well as the mythology behind their pantheon. Now Sith mythology is very gruesome and revolting. As a result, I'll try to explain things in their most clean version possible and I will not go into too much detail.

Sith mythology begins with shadow. Shadow, to the Sith, represented many things. On one level, shadows were seen as a halfway point between reality and unreality. Shadows take the shape of whatever blocks the light and, as anyone who's seen a shadow-puppet show can assert, they can be used to simulate reality while not actually being real. This was seen as crucial; it was a way for something to emerge out of nothing. On a deeper metaphysical level, shadow represents the Force in its totality. The Force as a whole is neither light nor dark, but has light and dark aspects, thus making shadow. Sith mythology saw the Force as the One, the All, and the Absolute. It was the metaphysical essence of all of existence.

The first deity to emerge from this state was known as the Father of Shadows. He is almost never depicted, but based off scattered references he is a type of old man with grey hair and wings. He is the embodiment of the Force or the Absolute. He drew upon the Force and separated light from dark. The light formed the first goddess known as the Lady With the Locust Heart, while the dark coalesced into a mysterious figure known as The Shunned Deity. The Lady With the Locust heart is usually depicted as young and beautiful, a temptress who feeds the foolish and unwary with poisons, making them lethargic and weak. The locust represents the unrestrained flourishing of life and the seductive power of peace, which the Sith believe to be a lie. The Shunned Deity is usually depicted as an enormous flying creature who represents hatred and betrayal as well as the strong culling the weak. These attributes are seen by the Sith as the only true method of strength and progress. These Primordial Gods are never spoken of by name. The Sith had a strange mixture of awe and hatred of these figures, so out of reverence they never spoke their names, and out of hatred their names were forbidden words.

The embodiments of the light and dark clashed and from their conflict emerged the Soulworm, who was known as the Bringer of Chaos. The Soulworm has both male and female attributes, depending on the ancient source. When it is male it is often referred to as the 'Charnel God' and when female as the 'Beloved Queen of the Stars.' It is depicted as a massive serpent creature, sometimes with one, and sometimes with multiple heads. From its back and face come massive tentacles which it uses to rip the souls out of living beings. The Soulworm inhabits the deepest levels of the Sith underworld known as Chaos where it burrows into mountains of corpses, creating zombified automaton with their parts and torturing fallen souls, but it often rises to bring widespread calamities and incite the gods to war.

The last of the Primordial Gods has perhaps the most mysterious origin. He is called the Inscrutable One, and is the master if numbers, geometry, time, order, and technology. This god is less explicitly worshiped and functions more as an intermediary force between the other gods. His origin is complicated. By most accounts he is the opposite of the Soulworm and came into being when it was formed, him being an orderly force to balance it, but some hold him to be the most ancient of all the Primordial Gods, being eternal and existing even before the Father of Shadows. This belief reflects the philosophy of numbers, namely that numbers and their relations are the most real things as they are absolutely certain and not dependant on anything else. The idea is that while the Force or the Absolute emerged from shadows which are halfway between reality and unreality, it is still possible to measure shadows as it is to measure empty space and matter. The Inscrutable One is depicted as constantly planning and scheming, but nobody can understand his plans, a belief referencing the idea that numbers are in essence tautologies, that is, you can not explain them except in relation to other numbers. He is almost never depicted, but when he is, he appears as a being with long arms and massive horns; his body is constantly shifting with eyes and mouths coming into existence and shifting all over his skin.

Together, these five make up the Primordial Deities, collectively known as the Ruinous Powers. This name is unusual as they created the universe, but the logic is that their existence led to irregularities and imperfections in the nothing that existed previously. Oblivion does not exist, and as such it had no inconsistencies or imperfections. The Ruinous Powers emerged from nothing and their existence caused irregularities that led to the creation of our present imperfect universe.

The physical universe was created from the Force by the conflict between light and dark. Unlike in some mythologies which have two competing but equal forces, in Sith mythology, the dark encroached on the light and the light gave way to the dark. The dark is aggressive, the light is submissive. It is this dialectic, driven by the chaotic Soulworm, which created the raw material from which the universe formed. The Inscrutable One gave this raw material form and set the physical laws that govern the universe into place. The Lady With the Locust Heart and the Shunned Deity were seen as the first married couple- from which the Sith deduced that abusive marriages were normal and acceptable. The Lady gave birth to the Old Gods, which were seen as the first true generation of the Sith pantheon, as the Ruinous Powers were less 'gods' in the traditional sense and more as the primeval forces.

The firstborn of the Old Gods was Kopa Khan who was vaguely humanoid and worshiped as the god of death. He is often associated with dying stars and black holes. To clarify the differing roles of him and the Soulworm, the he is the god of the process of dying while the Soulworm represents the underworld and undead. Following him are Tilotny, Horliss, Danda, and Ap. Tilotny is the goddess of form, Horliss is the god of mass, Danda is the goddess of energy, and Ap is the god of spatial extension. These four make up the building blocks of the physical universe, and since it's impossible to have one without the other, they have no definite shape and can take whatever form they wish. These four were educated by the Inscrutable One who set each in balance to order the physical universe while stepping in to represent time itself. However, time is more prior to any of them as time structures all thoughts, including those of the gods themselves. The Ruinous Powers are incorporeal and as such do not need space and have no definite matter or form, and, since they have none of these properties, they cannot have any inherent energy either. However, they are sentient and as such their thoughts are structured by time. It should be noted as these five names were very common in Sith culture, so living individuals who share these names should not be confused with the gods themselves.

Kopa Khan married Tilotny and from them came the primary generation of Sith gods, known as the 'Mortal Gods of the Sith' as opposed to their immortal parents but more of them later. Horliss and Danda also married and produced a race of 'demons,' the logic being that demons have no definite form or spatial size, but they have energy and can affect the physical world as if they had mass; they will be important later as well.

Now the Soulworm saw the orderly universe that was being created and did not like it. The Soulworm went to Kopa Khan and told him that if he ever wanted to rule the universe, he would have to overthrow his father. Kopa Khan, being a typical Sith, thought this was a great idea. So he went to the Inscrutable One who taught him how to make the first Sith swords which he planned to use against his father. However, since the Ruinous Powers are immortal, he could not just kill him. Instead he chose to cut off his wings, limbs, and, well, genitals. This is curious as the Ruinous Powers are supposed to have no definite form, but the Sith probably didn't care about minor details like that and wanted to make it as gruesome as possible.

Kopa Khan ascended to form a trinity of higher deities along with the Soulworm and the Inscrutable One. The Lady With the Locust Heart had been pushed to the edges of the Sith cosmos by the Shunned Deity while he was, well, shunned (hence how he got his name) by Kopa Khan who took his place. Nobody really knew what happened to the Father of Shadows, but many assumed that the Shunned Deity exiled or bound him since the Sith like this type of family dynamic.

There were many 'Mortal Gods' who were the offspring of Kopa Khan and Tilotny, but the main ones were Typhojem, Tharagorrogaraht, and Ooru who were born in that order. Ooru is usually depicted as an amorphous blob. From his body came algae which eventually was formed into plants and similar organisms. Tharagorrogaraht is depicted as a giant scarab. She gave birth to various animal species, then ate Ooru. The consumption of a sentient god caused her to give birth to various sentient non-Sith species, primarily the Killiks, which the Sith hated with a passion. Because of this, she was seen as the goddess of slaves.

Typhojem is seen as the main Sith god and the progenitor of their species. Due to his parentage, he is depicted as various forms in one. He has long, octopus like tentacles on his face, bat like wings, and green skin. For his fearsome image, Tilotny hated him which caused a bitter rivalry between mother and son. He took Tharagorrogaraht as his wife and from them came fourth the Sith species. For this, the Sith see themselves blessed as they are descended from two gods compared to all other sentient species who were descended from Tharagorrogaraht alone. This represents the Sith chain of being. On the lowest level, descended from Ooru are plants. Plants are then eaten by animals descended from Tharagorrogaraht. Other sentient beings were seen as simply really smart animals. Then there were the Sith who were descended from two gods. This is the Sith explanation for why their species was all Force-sensitive, the are more connected to creation than anything else.

Typhojem then killed Tharagorrogaraht with his left hand- another fascinating example of the Sith sanctity of marriage. The left hand is significant as the Sith species was left handed, representing their superior physical attributes, or so they believed. This represents the Sith belief that they would conquer and rule over all animal species. Following this, Typhojem exiled the rest of the gods except for Kopa Khan, the Soulworm, and the Inscrutable One. He feared the wrath of these three more than any others and so he became their high priest and offered sacrifice to them. However, the Inscrutable One at some point vanished mysteriously, and so he was no longer worshiped.

The final stage in the Sith cosmology came when the demons became jealous. Now, the demons were not exiled as the gods were because they could not be caught. The demon's leader was named Wutzek and he wanted attention and sacrifice. He killed Typhojem and let the rest of the demons to banish Kopa Khan and the Soulworm to Chaos, their underworld.

The Sith believed that the undead Kopa Khan continued to act as the gatekeeper of the underworld, weighing the souls of the dead to determine how powerful they were in life. Those who are the most powerful are sent to live with the spirit of Typhojem, who became Pomojema- a minor god of healing. The rest, all those who were too weak in life, are sent to various levels of Chaos to feed the Soulworm.

As for the Wutzek and the demons, the details as to their fates are uncertain. Many Sith, after contact with the Rakata, believed that they somehow possessed the Rakata to act as physical bodies, which explains the Rakata's inherent Force-sensitivity while preserving the Sith pride of being the only ones descended from Typhojem. The Sith believed that their divine line can be traced back to Typhojem and that when the Sith needed him the most, an avatar known as the Sith'ari, or ultimate Sith, would come.


	3. Ch 3: The Celestials

Ch. 3: The Celestials

Most scholars agree that the gods, if they were ever real at all, were the ancient Celestials. The Celestials themselves are shrouded in mystery, but there are some historical facts that can be divined from what little information we do have. However, anything that can be learned from the Celestials is derived mainly from the combined myths of various cultures. As a result, these next two chapters will likely sound more like an alternate version of the creation myth than actual history, and its accuracy should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Celestials were thought to have inhabited the Galaxy circa. 110,000- 30,000 BBY. Some estimates place them back millions of years ago, and others even further to the beginning of the universe. However, of these two hypothesis the former is a fringe theory and the later pure pseudohistory. The Celestials may not have been the first Galactic civilization, as the Columi and Sharu are thought to have originated two million years ago, but the Celestials undoubtedly had the greatest impact on future galactic civilizations. We do not know when they rose to galactic dominance, but it is known that they were active before 100,000 BBY.

A detailed history of the Celestials is subject to much guesswork and interpretation, and as such, it is too convoluted to explain in one chapter, however, while we may not be able to explore their history, we can certainly explore their culture and what caused them to fall.

To start, the Celestials are sometimes referred to as the Force Wielders. True to their name, some Jedi believe them to have been the only organization to have ever unlocked the secrets of the Force in its entirety. Some say that they even merged with the Force itself, although this is a fringe theory at best.

Some believe that the Celestials were beings of pure energy, but this is a common misconception not supported by facts. As far as we can tell, the Celestials had physical bodies. The Celestials are believed to be an amorphous species much like the the Shi'ido or the Proteans. They are believed to have used this power to infiltrate other species and sometimes to teach them the ways of the Force. This is likely how they came to be viewed as gods by so many.

The Celestials were known for their extended life spans, although to what extent is disputed. Many claim that they were virtually immune to aging. This does not appear to be natural. Jedi healers who study the Force hypothesize that they accomplished this as a result of a technique known as 'midichlorians manipulation.'

Midichlorians are symbiotic organisms that live inside all complex cells. They appear to be links to the Force as a whole. The Force is generated by all living things, but living things need the Force to survive and for cells to perform certain organic functions. The midichlorian channels the Force into itself and the host cell, as a result, midichlorians determine force sensitivity. Midichlorians have natural appetites that are very hard to overcome. They all seek to maintain constant numbers, and they all seek preservation of the host. However, it is possible to use the Force to manipulate midichlorians to cause various effects.

The only technique allowed by the Jedi is Force Healing. All this is is channeling Force energy into the midichlorian to promote healing in the damaged cells. This is not seen as bad by the Jedi as it is not manipulation per se but simply helping the midichlorian do its job. The Celestials are thought to have had many more techniques and many of these were passed down to the Sith in the form of Sith Alchemy, which will be the subject of later chapters. However, the only Sith lords to truly master this ability to the level that the Celestials achieved were Darth Plagueis and the Sith Emperor Vitiate.

One of the most famous techniques is the ability to save others from death. When a living thing dies, its midichlorians often die with it. Someone with this ability could keep these midichlorians from dying and feed them excess Force energy causing them to heal the damaged cells. The midichlorians would then keep dividing causing the body to become stable, and if the brain and spirit are still intact, the person should be able to come back from the brink of death. Another ability that is a combination of the above fused with an advanced healing application is the ability to reverse aging. It was these abilities that made the Celestials virtually immortal.

Another important ability is the ability to conceive an embryo through the midichlorians. There are two ways in which this could occur. First, the most famous example is Anakin Skywalker who became Darth Vader. He was conceived as a result of a massive shift in the balance of the Force causing him to have a midichlorian count just over 20,000. Anakin may not have been the only one to have been conceived this way, but it certainly is a rare phenomena. The second instance, is the ability for a Force user to will a target to conceive through direct manipulation. As this does not involve the Force on a grand scale, it is much more controllable. Subjects conceived in this manner would have a midichlorian count around 15,000, which is on par with a high end Jedi or Sith, but is not exceptionally rare.

Through this ability, the Celestials could guarantee that any member of their species was born with a high Force potential. This must have had curious repercussions on their mating habits. Many speculate that males eventually went extinct since they were no longer needed. Because of this, the Celestials were first and foremost a species that had uniform access to the Force on high levels while having extremely long life spans to study and perfect their art.

The Celestial Force wielding organization is relatively unknown, but is believed that they got their sacred texts and instructions from an even older race known as the Tempestro, a primitive but enlightened race who served as a species of prophets two million years ago. The Celestials likely heavily modified their teachings with new scientific advances from their advanced technology. They were known to have emphasized balance and harmony between both sides of the Force, and individuals spent centuries mastering their emotions in such a way that the entire scope of the Force was open to them while they could resist being corrupted or driven to insanity by it. This lifestyle is impractical for most, but since the Celestials lived so long they could make it work.

It is thought that their civilization came to an end when a group rejected this balance, viewing it as easier to just give into the dark side. This group was banished and they became known as the Kanzer Exiles. A group saw what had happened, and believed that it would be best to surrender completely to the Will of the Force rather than to try to exert a beings own will over it. They devoted themselves completely to the light and became known as the Whills. Both of these groups were seen as heretics, but it is thought that they coexisted for a while until the Exiles and mainstream Celestials went to war. This event came to be known as the War in Heaven, and will be the subject of the next chapter.

First, it is necessary to talk about the level of technology the Celestials as a species possessed. It is thought that all baseline Celestial technology is derived from the Columi. The Columi were active in the galaxy two million years ago before being wiped out in an unknown cataclysm. They as a species were eventually able to again reach space-fairing status thousands of years before the War in Heaven. It is thought that they gave their technology to the Celestials who then improved it with the Force and then ironically wiped out the Columi again. However, what really gave Celestial technology its godlike vibe is the influence of the far more advanced Sharu.

Now the Sharu evolved around the same time or right after the Columi. However, for some unknown reason, the Sharu were unable to achieve much hyperspace flight outside of their home system. Some hypothesize that their civilization was sealed away in a dangerous hyperspace cluster by an unknown advanced race, possibly the Columi themselves, but this is debated. As it stands, the Sharu didn't spread outwards and were forced to get along with each other while locked in a single system. They became peaceful and developed huge city planets, which eventually gave way to massive pyramidal structures. They ended up being locked in their home system for almost two million years which led to them being able to achieve a level of technological progress that most science fiction authors can only dream of. Their society came to an end when the warlike Celestials invaded from the outside. The Sharu, having renounced war aeons ago, were reduced to primitivism and their reality-altering technology was plundered and weaponized by the Celestials.

The Celestials were unable to replicate some of the most impressive Sharu feats of engineering, but unlocked their technology in stages. An example of this is the now destroyed Centerpoint station, which seemed to combine technologies from many different levels of progress. With their new technology, the Celestials were able to engineer regions of space where time did not flow right, create pocket dimensions to store untold horrors, and build machines that could move planets, destroy stars, and create black holes. Combined with the Force, the Celestials could experiment with the fabric of life, creating new species and ecosystems on a whim.

The Celestials various species and used them for slave labor. Some of these species were the Killiks, the Kwa, the Gree, Ahra Naffi, and Bith. Some ancient humans were known to have made contact with them as well. This is the galaxy that birthed the Sith. It is believed that the first Sith were created as a slave race by the Kanzer Exiles sometime before the War in Heaven. This will be the subject of the next chapter.


	4. Ch 4: The War in Heaven

Ch. 4: The War in Heaven

The War in Heaven (circa. 100,000 BBY) was an event that changed the face of the Galaxy forever. It signified the fall of the Celestials and the rise of several other species to compete for the mantle of dominant galactic power.

Leading up to the war, the Celestials had created various devices of massive power known as Cosmic Turbines. These devices were often the size of a small moon and were used to manipulate gravitational forces to form or tear apart planets and stars. These could be used to created hyperspace anomalies that blocked travel from one side of the galaxy to another. These hyperspace anomalies continue to have repercussions to this day.

The actual first causes and the direction of the war and its many battles has been lost to history. In fact, we have little information on how it was even fought. The Celestials, unlike modern navies, did not appear to use massive fleets of ships, instead the war was mainly fought both on the ground or in the form of small skirmishes for control of massive pieces of technology such as the Cosmic Turbines. The merit of this strategy is obvious, instead of throwing money and lived into ship construction and crewing, they instead targeted preexisting structures and took them over using either slave armies or their own martial powers. Once a structure was in possession, it could be used to destroy the enemy planet that it orbited or to create a hyperspace anomaly to prevent any more travel. How the Celestials traveled without massive navies is something of a mystery, but it is believed that they used the Cosmic Turbines to 'launch' smaller ships into hyperspace where they would then emerge and touch down on the enemy planet to do battle.

The two main factions were the mainstream Celestials and the Kanzer Exiles. The Exiles concern us more as they are the ones who created the Sith. Now, the Exiles wielded the dark side and were the original developers of several of the techniques that would become Sith Sorcery and Alchemy. How and why they decided to create the Sith is unknown, but one hypothesis is that they wanted a race of Force- sensitive slaves to act as soldiers. Due to the genetic resemblance of humans and Sith, humans were likely the baseline stock mutated to create the Sith. The Sith homeworld was Korriban, which the Celestials populated with the first Sith.

The parallels between the ancient Sith mythology and creation stories from other cultures is striking. Using the parallels, historians have been able to construct which parts were likely true, or at least derived from true events and individuals.

The Father of Shadows, Lady With the Locust Heart, and Shunned Deity likely represent the Ones of Mortis, a trio of surviving Celestials who were discovered and killed during the Clone Wars (circa. 20 BBY). The Ones include the Father, Daughter, and Son who were known to the Sith as the Father, the Lady, and Shunned Deity respectively. The Ones were an enigmatic group who inhabited an ancient construct known as Mortis which served as a powerful Force nexus. Their presence on such a powerful location is believed to have had an effect on the Force at large. When and why they went there is uncertain, but it is possible that they were a group that had somehow foreseen the war and wanted to keep the Force in balance to prevent it.

The Soulworm is believed to represent a being known as Abeloth who emerged after the Second Galactic Civil War (circa. 41 ABY). Abeloth was Force sensitive, but not a Celestial. She somehow came to live with the Ones. However, she grew bitter with them and ended up stealing their ancient deposits of knowledge and taking shortcuts to maximise her power. She was able to turn the Son to the dark side and escape from the Father and Daughter. In response, the daughter devoted herself entirely to the light fearing that she would be corrupted as well.

The identity of the Inscrutable One is unknown. Some believe that he was the leader if the Celestials as a species, others believe he was simply made up, while some claim that he was simply a survivor of the War in Heaven who carried on the traditions and philosophy of the Celestials as a species. However, we are almost certain that the individual that inspired the legend of Kopa Khan was real. In fact, many historians believe Kopa Khan was his real name. The reason for this is that in the ancient language, 'Kanzer' as in 'Kanzer Exiles' is derived from 'kan,' a pronunciation of 'Khan' and 'zer' which is a title of respect that roughly translates to 'a disciple of.' Therefore, the Kanzer Exiles are followers of one named 'Khan.'

It is thought that the Son and Abeloth were able to trigger the war's beginning, and they led the war along with Khan. The war lasted for an unknown period of time, but eventually, the Son turned on Abeloth and betrayed her to the Father and Daughter. They killed her, but her spirit continued to inhabit a world in the unknown regions. The Father then imprisoned himself and his two children in Mortis and he continued to use them to keep the Force in balance.

The war continued on. At this point, due to their devotion to pure power and brutal tactics, it looked like the Exiles were going to triumph as they were able to take control of a large portion of the Cosmic Turbines. This is how the hyperspace disturbance that separates the Unknown regions was thought to have been created. As the war dragged on, more and more hyperspace lanes along their territorial borders were blocked by gravitational anomalies causing a no-man's space between them.

Eventually, Khan was killed by an usurper named Korman Lao. This caused a rift between the followers of Khan and those of Lao. In frustration, the followers of Khan decided to wage a scorched-planet campaign. This was the Muurshantre Extinction. The followers of Khan retaliated by causing all of their Cosmic Turbines to destroy nearby planets, causing untold destruction. Since the Turbines has some degree of intelligence to carry out this order, they had to be destroyed to stop the devastation. After that Muurshantre Extinction, the galaxy was a cinder. Whatever remained of the Exiles fled deep into the unknown regions where they inhabited the Nihl retreat.

There is another thing that finished them off and kept them from ever becoming dominant again, and that is the Mnggal-Mnggal. It is a single massive organism that resembles grey slime. It infects its victims and takes control of their minds, devouring them from the inside out to produce more of itself. Through this, it is able to kill entire planets. It is thought to have been the idea behind the Sith god Ooru. The Mnggal-Mnggal was likely created by the Exiles as a type of biological weapon, similar to the infamous Imperial biological agent 'Blackwing,' but it soon got way out of control. This organism was able to devour worlds preventing the Exiles from ever becoming a dominant power again. Eventually they died off, but ruins of their culture can still be found in the Unknown Regions if one knows where to look or is extremely unlucky.

The mainstream Celestials were able to survive as a civilization, but most of their elders were killed and their repositories of knowledge were destroyed causing them to lose most of their Force traditions. It is thought that they even lost the ability to manipulate midichlorians, an ability which had become the backbone of their society. As a result, they likely turned to cloning to keep their species alive. Eventually, likely due to complications caused by cloning Force sensitives, their species gradually lost its connection to the Force. They still had some access to their previous technology which became the new backbone of their civilization. The slave races that were under their control were mostly wiped out in the Extinction. However, over the millennia they grew in power by learning how to use remnants of the Celestials teachings. The Gree were able to control and reverse engineer and improve on most of the Celestials advanced technology, and the Kwa were able to improve on the Celestials Force traditions. Due to the advancement of their former slave races, the Celestials were pushed back to a small corner of the galaxy. They continued to survive until circa. 30,000 BBY when the Celestials wiped out the remainder of their empire and caused their main star to go supernova, ending their reign forever.

But what does this have to do with the Sith? To answer that, let us examine the creator of the Sith culture and species himself.

Typhojem:

Typhojem may or may not be the name of the actual individual, but there is enough evidence of his existence to conclude that the individual who inspired the myth of Typhojem was a real being. For convenience, most historians simply call him Typhojem.

Typhojem's species is unknown, but many believe he was some type of Celestial creation but not a Celestial himself. He is depicted as a massive green humanoid being with octopus-like tentacles around his mouth and leathery wings on his back. He is said to have hailed from the planet Xoth, a watery world orbiting a binary star far outside of the galaxy. This in itself is interesting. If this is true, it means that the Celestials had made progress in trying to move to other galaxies. A world that meets the criteria of Xoth has recently been discovered. On it, the remains of an ancient civilization have been found. From what little genetic remains of the original inhabitants have been found, many biologists believe that a known species called the J'feh are actually descended from them. This is further reinforced by Yevetha having creation myths similar to those of the Sith and their homeworld having the possible remains of ancient Celestial technology, although this matter is still uncertain and is the subject of much debate and biological/archeological research. However, if this is confirmed, it would mean that the progenitors of the J'feh were powerful servants of the Celestials who could have created many of the Galaxy's sentient species.

What is known about Typhojem is that after the Sith were created, he traveled to Korriban to educate them and instal the line of Sith kings. Many of the Sith rituals and teachings have their ancient roots credited to Typhogem. It is thought that after the Exiles were defeated, he returned to Korriban to go into hiding. Not much is known about his personal life beyond this. As to the circumstances of his death, historians are unsure. Legend says that he was killed by a demon, and this is a very real possibility. There is an ancient Sith technique known as Dwomutsiqsa, which translates to 'summon demon.' When a sorcerer uses this technique, it causes a dark side entity known as a 'smoke demon' to be created. Perhaps Typhojem or one of his disciples used this ability but lost control of the demon. Or perhaps the ability has its roots in the Celestials and one of their demons killed him. It is unknown.

However he may have met his eventual demise, Typhojem's life serves the Sith in a threefold manner. First, he was a warlord. In life, he led many bloody campaigns to unite the Sith species and install some type of governmental structure. Second, he was a prophet. He is responsible for installing the ancient Sith religion and forcing the Sith to worship the Celestials as gods. Finally, he was a philosopher. His teachings on the subjects of law, meditations, alchemy, and sorcery continued to be used and improved or adapted by Sith for millenia. In all, on his teachings the Sith order is founded.


	5. Ch 5: The Age of the Gods

Ch.5 The Age of the Gods

After the death of Typhojem (circa. 100,000 BBY) the Sith began to form a complex mythology surrounding what had happened. The details of Typhojem's reign are obscure, but it is highly likely that he was able to form the Sith people into a unified whole- at least for a short time. Following his death this unity vanished.

The overall technological level that the Sith possessed is unknown. If the Celestial hypothesis which most scholars accept is correct, then it is possible that they briefly were a spacefaring people. However, there is scant evidence for this.

* * *

The Problem of Archeology:

To say that studying the Sith is challenging is a massive understatement. Korriban's history dates back to 100,000 BBY and throughout the ages several layers of history were added, one on top the other. This is the problem of studying ancient planets. Archeology becomes more like geology as any relics or skeletons are so far submerged that they were almost indistinguishable from the fossils of ancient non-sentient beings. However, unlike with ancient animal fossils which stay in one place, the Sith have a habit of digging up remains and looking for secrets of past civilizations. Unfortunately for us, they seemed to be more concerned with looting ancient tombs for powerful artefacts rather than documenting the past. The result is thousands of years of history all jumbled up for archaeologists to piece together.

In addition, the Sith love to hide their secrets and unlike many cultures who place bogus curses on their tombs and artefacts, the Sith curses are quite real. If researchers are not careful, packs of Tuk'ata, Hississ, or even corpses reanimated by Sith alchemy could appear.

The Valley of Golg is a prime example. A walk through the valley reveals walls with layers upon layers of history dating back to the first Sith. Tombs belonging to hundreds of thousands of Sith Lords as well as the mass graves of upper class peasants line the walls dating back to before 40,000 BBY. Additionally, with some digging, artefacts and skeletons dating to before then are able to be recovered. In all, the Valley seems a prime archaeological site. However, the Sith who built the tombs did so by carelessly digging up and displacing these thousands of years worth of historical sediment. Because these tombs are everywhere, dating found sediment is almost impossible. Additionally, the tombs offer very little information as well since most have long since been pillaged. The final challenge is the still active curses and harsh wildlife. Hississ and Tuk'ata are the most common, but more dangerous predators such as the Jedi-hunting rancor-like Terentatek or the Sarlacc-like Silan are sometimes discovered. This is not even mentioning the campfire horror stories circulating among archaeological teams and spacers alike of still active Sith spirits, living shadows, shape-shifting illusions, and the living dead. On the more positive note, while Korriban is undoubtedly spooky, it is for the most part a dead world. There is little food causing the local wildlife population to be fairly low, and with aeons of Sith pillaging the tombs and ruins, any latent magics and curses are likely already triggered. There are still some stories of weird things happening, but these are more myth than fact. It is exciting to think that we may finally be upon the verge of many great discoveries made possible by the decay of the dark side energies surrounding the panet.

Jedi are often involved on these digs as their insight to the nature of the Force and it's dark side is invaluable. However, the Jedi seem to be even more spooked by the place than the archeologists themselves are. Additionally, Jedi masters are the only ones allowed to undertake these studies, as there are far too many tales of inexperienced padawans falling to the dark side to risk it. With masters in short supply there is usually a very small number willing and able to undertake expeditions to study Korriban.

One method of historiography proposed is to learn about the more ancient Sith through the lens of more recent Sith. For example, the One Sith, the New Sith (circa. 2000 BBY), and the Old Sith of Malak and Exar Kun (circa. 4000 BBY) have all made extensive studies of the Sith preceding them and their records could illuminate even earlier Sith history. However, there are problems. First, these Sith are more concerned with uncovering their predecessors power and knowledge rather than making a detailed history. Second, these groups are not exactly objective sources and tend to see their predecessors either in a deified or disdainful manner. And finally, these Sith records are, in themselves, hard to find.

Trying to dig on other Sith worlds such as Krayiss II, Vjun, Nicht Ka, Dromund Kaas, and Ziost have been in all more successful. However, the history of these worlds does not date back before 30,000 BBY at the earliest. Therefore, while these worlds can give us a more clear picture of Sith history after a certain point, Sith prehistory is still obscured by being confined to a single planet.

In short, anything that we can say about the past from an archaeological viewpoint has to be severely qualified.

* * *

That's not to say we know nothing. When it comes to ancient technology, anything found is usually in the form of primitive weapons suggesting that the Sith were never spacefairing before 30,000 BBY. However, since primitive weapons were used at every era, finding an ancient spearhead does not necessarily date back to the Age of the Gods. Additionally, any Celestial tech would be severely eroded and almost unrecognizable. However, there are a few good finds. The most famous discovery of Celestial technology is in the form of the Tho Yor Landing.

The Tho Yor Landing:

The Tho Yor are a series of eight pyramidal ships whose ruins are found on the planet Tython. Tython is a planet in the deep core that is believed to be one of the original homeworlds of the Jedi Order. However, the constantly shifting hyperlanes of the deep core prevent a detailed study of Tython's past.

The Tho Yor ships were originally spread out across the galaxy on planets with an indigenous population. Nobody is sure who exactly built them, but the most likely candidates are the Celestials. Circa. 36,500 BBY, the Tho Yor became active and collected force-sensitive natives to bring them all to the planet Tython. It is unknown why the Tho Yor brought these beings to Tython, but several hypotheses have been proposed. The most widely accepted one is that the Celestials intended to use them to create some sort of new order of force-sensitive servants. The theory that the Celestials have built the Tho Yor has been challenged in recent years. These scholars point out that the hyperdrive engines of each Tho Yor appear to be very different from those of other Celestial constructs. The hyperdrives that most Celestial constructs have are centered around external engines, that is to say, large engines onboard a space station that launch a ship into hyperspace like a cannon while the ship itself has no such engine. The engines on the Tho Yor are believed to be internal, such as those of modern hyperdrives. Supporters of the Celestial theory suggest that this indicates a gradual morphing of technology from the large scale to the personal, suggesting that they were built very late in the Celestials history.

One of these Tho Yor was originally on Korriban. WWhile the Tho Yor itself left for Tython long ago, the structure that housed it was recently discovered. It is not large, less than a kilometer in diameter, and unfortunately any data that its computer systems may have once contained has been severely corrupted beyond recovery. However, it is still the most valuable find, by far, from this era. It appears that the structure was used as a temple for the native Sith, both while the Tho Yor was housed there as well as after it left. Carvings and murals of the Sith gods and legends are found both on the structure as well as in surrounding Sith-built structures. All of this suggests that it was a holy place for the ancient Sith. Some even believe that it was used as the original palace for Typhojem and early Sith kings.

Whatever the case may be, this site provides the most detailed and systematic account of Sith prehistory as well as the most direct evidence of the Celestial Theory of Sith origins.

* * *

From the contents of the Tho Yor and other sites, a rough approximation of early Sith formation can be drawn.

Soon after the disappearance of the Celestials in 100,000 BBY, the Sith appear to be small and unified under a chain of monarchs. As the Sith population grows, groups break off and explore other areas of the planet. Eventually, the monarchy collapsed and the Sith split off into dozens of different warring tribes. In this state, perpetual war and a series of natural disasters prevent the Sith from forming a strong unified nation. However, smaller empires occasionally pop up, each one claiming to be the 'true Sith'- a grim foreshadowing of later Sith history. During this time the Tho Yor is used as a meeting place or as a site of pilgrimages. Once the Tho Yor leaves, the site begins to fade into obscurity. The Sith continue to be disorganized until they are invaded and conquered by the Killiks in 30,000 BBY which will be the subject of the next chapter.


	6. Ch 6: The Sith-Killik War

Ch. 6: The Sith- Killik War

To understand the Sith- Killik War, it is necessary to understand a third group, the Rakata, in addition to the Killiks.

The Rakata and Killiks:

The Rakata were a species of force-sensitive amphibious humanoids from the planet Rakata Prime who are famous for building the artefact known as the Star Forge.

The Rakata were likely discovered and trained in the ways of the Force by another species known as the Kwa. The Kwa should not concern us at the moment, but it should be noted that through them the Rakata obtained much of their technology and knowledge about the Force. However, unlike the Kwa who were similar to Jedi in their philosophies, the Rakata were far more like the Sith.

It is unknown when the Rakata were discovered, but it is sometime between 40,000 and 35,000 BBY. They were taught the ways of the Force but after seeing their true nature, the Kwa abandoned them. The Rakata however did not descend into anarchy and instead they combined their might and, using the technology of the Kwa, took to the stars. It is probable that the first species that they encountered was the Killiks.

The Killiks are an insectile species, who are actually a menagerie of similar species merged together into one by advanced genetic splicing. The original insectile stock likely evolved on Alderaan over a million years ago. Because of their strange genetics, the Killiks come in many shapes and sizes. They were likely created in their present form by the Celestials and used as their main source of slave labor and the Killiks are extremely fast growing and single minded allowing them to be perfect expendable soldiers and laborers. The most unusual feature of the Killiks is the ability for them to create 'joiners'. Killiks communicate through a variety of phonemes, sounds, and electrical impulses. These phonemes, with prolonged exposure, can cause other sentient species to acquire mental patterns similar to those of the Killiks. After a while, the sentient starts to behave like a Killik. These people are called 'joiners'. For force-sensitives, the effect is even more unusual. A force-user who becomes a joiner begins to share an intense force bond with the Killik hive. The average Killik midichlorian count is slightly higher than that of the average human, but the Killiks are not, in themselves, very force sensitive. They do however form extremely powerful force bonds. This allows the joiner to draw on their combined force sensitivity to greatly enhance the joiner's own power.

It is possible for this process to happen in reverse as well. If a large enough number of force-sensitives become joiners, the colony can become mildly force-sensitive as well and thanks to the transmission of information via bonds, if one is trained, they are all trained. This process is magnified when the force-sensitive joiners are in the presence of powerful force nexuses. The force flows from the powerful nexus into the joiners and from the joiners into the colony. It is believed that this is how the Celestials were able to use the Killiks as more effective laborers. They would either force other Celestials to become joiners or force their force-sensitive slaves to. The Killiks would then build massive structures or fight for the Celestials.

In their natural state, that is to say without any joiners, the Killiks are primitive. They are somewhat sentient, but most of their memories are communal and they make no difference between myth and reality. They subsist primitively on whatever planet they are on and rarely move offworld. In their natural state, they are also very communal rather than individualistic. After the Celestials fractured, the Killiks returned to this state.

It is likely that when the Rakata discovered the Killiks sometime around 36,000 BBY, they were still in this state. However, the force-sensitive Rakata became joiners and the Killik colonies began to become industrialized. Over the years, the Rakata and Killiks experienced and population growth and spread to other worlds rich in resources. It is also likely that sometime later the Rakata discovered blueprints for ancient Celestial technology still locked away in the Killik subconscious which they then used to build incredible feats of technology. It is also believed that around this time the Rakata came into contact with the Esh-kha, another species used as joiners.

Around 34,000 BBY, the Celestials came into contact with the main remnants of the Celestials. They went to war in one of the most brutal conflicts of galactic prehistory: The Celestial- Rakata War.

The Celestials technology was more advanced, but they just could not compete with the reproductive and industrial might of the Rakata-Killik war machine. However, it was not a simple defeat. What made the war particularly bloody was the fact that the Esh-kha betrayed the Rakata and joined the Celestials. Why this happened is unknown, but it is likely that the Esh-kha were fed up with the Rakata and were lured by the dream of possessing valuable Celestial technology. This caused the Killik colonies to schism. Sometime during the war, the Killiks abandoned many of their homeworlds, including Alderaan.

The Rakata and Celestial war machines ground against each other forming a stalemate. Billions of Killiks were thrown at each other for hundreds of years. The Rakata had to resort to making unusual alliances to win. Using ancient Celestial maps programed into the Killiks, the Rakata spread out into the unknown Regions. Eventually they found what came to be known as the Hollowers of Beings and the Eaters of Worlds.

The Hollowers of Beings are thought to refer to a single entity: the Celestial monster Abeloth. This powerful force entity was known to take control of beings and use them to manipulate empires. The Eaters of Worlds are thought to refer to a single, even more dangerous entity: the Mnggal-Mnggal. Created by the Celestials as an out of control experiment, the Mnggal-Mnggal is a being consisting of grey ooze that reproduces by consuming other life. It is believed to be able to be able to destroy entire planets given enough time. It is said that a single drop can end a species. Together, these two beings helped contribute to the Celestials fall from galactic power, and again, they were brought back by the Rakata to finish the job. Abeloth was able to infect the Killiks minds while the Mnggal-Mnggal consumed their bodies. The Celestials, being dependant on them for support, were annihilated. As a final coup de grace to the Celestials, as well as to wipe out their dangerous allies, the Rakata were able to engineer a ritual that was able to cause the Celestial homestar to go supernova. The reason that they could not just do this to begin with was because of the Celestial and allied military forces. Once their armies were down, the Rakata were able to plow in and strike the final blow sometime around 33,500 BBY.

The supernova did not completely destroy Abeloth or the Mnggal-Mnggal as they were able to retreat, but enough of Abeloth's hosts and the Mnggal-Mnggal ooze were destroyed to prevent them from spreading. In addition, the Rakata were sure to eliminate them wherever they were spotted. The Celestials went extinct, however many of their advanced war droids were able to live on in the form of the Silentium droid species. Similarly, the Esh-kha were able to raid their technology and become a dominant galactic power apart from the Rakata. For the Rakata, they realized their dependence on the Killiks and made sure to kill all joiners and strand the Killiks on their home planets. The Rakata and Esh-kha eventually waged a series of wars of extinction against each other after the Celestial- Rakata War. These wars finally ended around 31,000 BBY with the annihilation of the Esh-kha, although the Rakata were almost extinct by the end of the war. The result of these seemingly endless wars of annihilation resulted in their section if the galaxy being burned and any species reduced to primitivism with no memories of what came before.

Meanwhile, thanks to the Rakata, the Killiks had a taste of organization. Left alone, their hive minds continued to grow and develop. Eventually they were able to reach spacefairing status and they sought to once again colonize the Galaxy. This is when they encountered the Sith.

The Invasion:

The Killik invaded Korriban around 30,000 BBY bringing an end to the tribalism that marked the Age of the Gods. The Killiks sought to make the Sith into a new joiner species as they were all force-sensitive. The Killiks learned from Sith teachings and the Sith gained spacefairing Killik technology. The actual invasion wasn't much of a war. The primitive Sith may have tried to resist, but the superior technology and numbers of the Killiks foiled any ideas of driving off the invasion. However, many Sith resented this reversal of the power balance.

Their chance came when the Killik majority was found by the Rakata. The Rakata at this point had long since anihilated the Esh-kha and were now the dominant power of the Galaxy. After the war, the Rakata did not take too kindly to anyone else vying for galactic dominance. The Rakata now waged a bloody war of extinction against the Killiks, thus beginning the Rakata- Killik War. (30,000 BBY) Killik worlds were annihilated left and right resulting in any survivors retreating to the unknown regions. At this time there were several Killik Sith who were off Korriban and who participated in the war and afterwards were scattered, but most Sith took this opportunity to turn on the Killiks resulting in the Sith- Killik War. (circa. 30,000 BBY)

Because of the weakened state of the Killiks, the Sith were able to win. The main results of this war are twofold: First, the Sith become far more organized. Before the war, the Sith were a collection of warring tribes and nation states, after, while far from being strong and centralized, the Sith at least have a planetary government that is working together. The threat that the Killiks posed caused the Sith to turn from fighting each other to fighting the invaders. Second, and most importantly, the Sith obtain advanced Killik technology. From the Killiks, the Sith obtain ships with interplanetary capabilities, hyperdrives, and other equipment for colonization. In a wave, the Sith spread out across local space. At first, they leave home to wage war against the Killiks, afraid that if left to their own devices the Killiks would reproduce and come back. The war becomes an extermination campaign. The Sith are able to kill off all the Killiks on surrounding planets, and take over their worlds. In this first wave of expansion, planets such as Ziost, Krayiss II, and Malachor were colonized. Eventually these systems would form into alliances. Thus begins the Age of First Empires.

There is however one more major result of the war, one that is not readily apparent from the point of view of the Sith people at large. That is, the Rakata were able to capture the Sith joiners. This is important as while the Rakata were ignorant as to the location of the Sith homeworld, they knew that the Sith existed. It is thought that they experimented on these captured subjects and from them obtained lengthy records of Sith genetic information.


	7. Ch 7: The Imperium of the Sith

Ch. 7: The First Imperium of Sith

After exterminating the Killiks, the Sith were left with several nearby planets to set up colonies on. Ziost became like a second home to the Sith species, while Malachor became a major depository for knowledge, and Tund became a frontier world where only the hardiest could survive. As they spread, their teachings on the nature of the Force became more refined.

Some Sith holocrons date back to 100,000 BBY, or at least are believed to. During the Age of the Gods, Sith tribes would usually cluster around these holocrons attempting to preserve their knowledge. The information contained in the holocrons were eventually written down on long scrolls and hidden in depositories, jealously guarded. This resulted in the Sith knowledge becoming very focused and specialized. Different cults would have their own beliefs and abilities and be distrustful of anything new. This all changed when the Sith became spacefaring. When this happened, the Sith had to copy as much as they could so that new colonists could stay true to their teachings. Eventually it was decreed that all available Sith knowledge should be stored on the outer planet Malachor. The reason for this is because while Korriban and Ziost would always be the centers of Sith culture and life, a depository was needed on one of the far-flung worlds to serve as a place for the Sith to branch out further from.

The overall technological level of the Sith at this time is hard to pin down, as their tools have always been a menagerie of different eras smashed together. First to note is the weapons. Most Sith weapons were original creations as they prefered to use the weapons of their ancestors rather than alien weapons. It should be remembered that blaster technology was not invented yet as blasters are Rakatan creations. It is highly unlikely that the Sith developed slug projectile weapons as we know them as Sith technology just did not evolve along that line. Instead, the Sith usually used massive alchemically-enriched swords, warhammers, or pole-disk weapons. Their spaceships and hyperdrives especially were run down and the Sith had little idea of how to reverse-engineer them. This resulted in a crippling dependence on technology that the Sith could not understand. The Sith ships were originally borrowed from the Killiks, although after a while the Sith learned how to reverse-engineer the ship at least. Sith ships were huge, bulky, and unstable, powered by a reactor and hyperdrive the Sith barely knew how to operate. As a result, the Sith used this technology sparingly.

It is believed that they would often attempt to create a technique that would allow them to travel based solely on the power of the Force. This is likely how the Force Storm technique was originally developed. Force Storms are massive hyperspace aberrations which can transport ships from one point in space to another. Some of the most powerful storms can even touch down on a gravity well, ripping up structures and flinging them into the void. However, it is highly unlikely that the Sith were able to use such a technique with that degree of refinement. We have records of them struggling to conjure the storm by themselves. Instead, they conducted huge rituals where a circle of Sith would sacrifice a, usually male, virgin to drain his life force to power the storm. Apparently the Sith thought that virgins somehow get better light-years per gallon ratings. The reason for males in particular is because the Sith viewed male virginity as a sign of extreme weakness, and it is only fitting that the weak should be used to power their space vessels.

With this strange mix of technology and the Force, the Sith spread out. Eventually they formed a large, but disorganized, government that came to be known as the First Imperium of the Sith. The Imperium was founded around 29,000 BBY, after a few hundred years of exploration. The center of Sith power was, of course, Korriban. It was from here that the Sith Emperor or Council would rule from. However, the Sith Emperor changed almost on a yearly basis with assassinations, poisonings, duels, and wars being the culprits. This was not a problem. Although the Emperor demanded loyalty, most worlds couldn't care less who was in charge and went about their daily business. As a result, while Korriban was almost perpetually in a state of civil war, the outlying planets didn't get involved and were independent in all but name. In fact, many of the smarter Sith migrated to these more peaceful worlds to escape. As a result, the Sith on Korriban often saw the colonies as weak, but they couldn't do anything as they were too busy killing each other off.

The Imperium as a whole was extremely xenophobic. Whenever they found what appeared to be another sentient alien species, they would not hesitate to exterminate with extreme prejudice. As a result, the Imperium had only pure blooded Sith. Sith were known to have several races even this early. Sith were ranked by a caste system with slaves and peasants on the bottom followed by merchants, engineers and warriors. At the top were the sorcerers and warlords who ruled. Each caste had a distinct appearance and skin tone. Usually, the darker red one's skin was, the higher the status. A few legendary Sith were even known to have skin that was charcoal-black.

This is the state of affairs that the Rakata found when they first encountered the Sith. At this point, the Rakatan empire was locked in yet another war of extinction, this time with the Kwa. The Rakata wanted to conquer Sith Space, but they saw how disorganized it was and knew that it would cost far too many resources to take it over. Additionally, the Sith were so disorganized that the Rakata considered them to be a non-threat. They had time to implement a more subtle plan. The Rakata captured Sith from far out worlds and experimented on them. Eventually they were able to create several powerful genetically-modified embryos. These embryos were implanted into kidnapped Sith women who had their memories wiped and were put back on their home planets. Later, they would give birth to the genetically enhanced Sith offspring. These offspring had jet-black skin and were extremely strong in the Force. Additionally, each was modified to stop aging once they reached a certain age. Throughout their young lives, Rakatan agents would kidnap them to alter their minds with the Force. These Rakatan would implant certain sleeper commands that could be activated at any time. The most powerful of these sleeper agents was named Adas.


	8. Ch 8: The God-Emperor: Sith'ari Adas

The Immortal God-Emperor: the Sith'ari Adas

Adas was born around 28,050 BBY. His parents, homeworld, and childhood are unknown although there are many legends surrounding it. Some say that when he was only a few months old, he snapped a hississ head off the creature's body. Another said that when an assassin disguised as a wet-nurse tried to kill him, instead of sucking her milk, he sucked out her life force. Another says that when he was a young boy, he brought a Tuk'ata back to life though the power of Sith alchemy. Yet another says that when he was only ten years old, Sith women would leave their husbands and do anything for his affection and he would oblige dozens a night. And yet another says that when he was a young warrior, he used the Force to pull a planet's moon out of orbit to kill an entire army. It is highly unlikely that any of these outlandish tales are true as these legends cropped up hundreds of years later, but they just go to show the type of reputation Adas earned throughout his long life.

As the modified Sith children grew up, it is highly unlikely that they had any contact with each other. Despite this, many were able to become respected generals and leaders on their home planets. Many made their way to Korriban where they were often heralded as saviors. It was here Adas joined the fray of Sith Lords vying for power. In his early career, his main rival was another black-skinned Sith named Set. Adas and Set were viewed as gods incarnate when they finally dueled. Adas's army won and when he ascended to the throne he was heralded as the God-Emperor of the Sith, the Overlord or Sith'ari. He began his career by ordering all black-skinned Sith to be brought before him. He then systematically beheaded them with his battle ax.

At this point the Rakata should have realized that their plan was going off the rails. However, either they thought they could handle Adas or they were simply too busy. What they did not anticipate was Adas's sheer power. His force potential was far greater than that of the average Sith, and he had hundreds of years to perfect his abilities. At the beginning of his reign, the God-Emperor consolidated his power by killing each warlord and submitting all the generals to his rule. He then systematically had each planet swear allegiance to him and him alone. After years of ruling the Imperium, it began to look like the Sith were entering a golden age. It was then that Adas appointed several satraps and viceroys to rule the Imperium. These advisors were able to do most of the work of running the Imperium by themselves, but only if they cooperated. Adas ensured this. In this way, the Imperium became completely dependant on Adas as the unifying force. Nobody wanted to risk killing him as the Imperium would collapse and hundreds of advisors would compete for succession. A successor was just not possible.

Despite this, Adas was thought to have fathered hundreds of offspring. Similarly, before he had killed them, the other dark-skinned Sith had fathered hundreds more. Luckily for these offspring, Adas allowed them to live as they appeared to be exactly like normal Sith. In addition, they were often extremely powerful in the Force- something that Adas was not against as long as that power served him. There was however one main difference between these Sith and the rest of the population. These offspring were very long lived as well. It is believed that Sith throughout the ages who have unnaturally long lifespans are simply the result of their genes popping up again.

Then Adas retreated from the public eye for decades. Adas worked on perfecting his powers and looking for ways to ensure that his reign would be infinite. Eventually, he devised a plan. He would link his most trusted generals, many of them his own sons, to him with a Sith Battlelord technique. This ritual would link their life forces to him so that if he died, they would also. He could also communicate with them from a distance and control them. However, the control was one way, if they died, it only briefly weakened him. He then began to centralize the army even more. His battle meditation would stretch across Sith space causing all military forces to be an extension of his will. Finally, he worked to unify the Imperium with a hyperspace network with himself as the central controller. He meditated deep in a dark side nexus on Korriban and reached out across space to open Force Storms allowing the military to travel more easily as well as inspiring fear of his power. To fuel the storms, he drew upon both the power of the dark side nexus as well as the combined life force of the citizens of Korriban. This was not standard Force Drain but rather a variant of an ability known as Consume Essence. It kept the citizens passive but unharmed while drawing their power to fuel his Force Storms. Additionally, he would often demand the sacrifice of those who thought about challenging his power, draining their life force to summon the storms. This level of power remained unmatched possibly until Ku'ar Danar, Vitiate, Darth Ruin, and Palpatine. (although Ajunta Pall, Karness Muur, and Darths Nihilus, Plagueis and Caedus do come close, as we will soon see)

A Note on Lightsabers:

Adas and some of his contemporaries were known to have used the lightsaber. This seems anachronistic as lightsabers were not invented by the Jedi Order until much later, but there are some precursor technologies that were utilized by the Rakata, as well as previous species possibly dating back to the Celestials. It is unknown where the Sith got this technology as they were known to have had it before contact with the Rakata. It is likely that this knowledge was from the Killiks. Although the Killiks did not use the weapons themselves, it is possible that the knowledge was stored in their hive minds by the Rakata which the Sith then discovered somehow. There are, however, some holes in this theory. Another hypothesis says that the lightsaber was invented by the Celestials and passed down to the Sith through one of Typhojem's holocrons. However, no holocron containing this information was ever found. However, if this is true, it would mean that the Rakata got the technology from the Sith, no the other way around.

Adas is famous for wielding two battle axes in battle. However, after hundreds of years of his body being ravaged by the Dark Side, he could no longer wield such heavy weapons. Therefore, he opted to use the more maneuverable lightsaber. Despite Adas's incredible strength in the Force, his lightsaber skills were lacking by modern standards. Training manuals from this era show very little knowledge about how to properly use the weapon. Specifically, the Sith seemed to think wielding a lightsaber and wielding a standard sword were comparable, rather than leveraging the strengths of a weightless energy blade.

Now back to the story:

Adas's rule lasted for 300 years. Sometime around 27,700 BBY, the Rakata sensed his presence and sought to contact him. They made a series of deals and he was able to obtain from them the technology to create holocrons. It is possible that Adas's holocron was the first Sith holocron to be created in seventy thousand years. At some point in his life, Adas was able to wipe the memories of his alternate personality as an agent of the Rakata. It is unknown how he even discovered this subconcious self, but he was apparently able to remove it as the Rakata were unable to control him directly. The Rakata were annoyed and eventually launched a full scale attack. Thus begins the Sith-Rakata War. (circa. 27,700 BBY) However, the Rakata were unable to bring their full might to bear as they, after annihilating the Kwa, the Rakata turned their attention to the Kwa's ally species, the Qonet. Thus began the Rakata-Qonet War. (circa. 27,700 BBY) Now, the Qonet were an ancient force-sensitive species that inhabited the Kathol sector. They were descended from the Ahra Naffi who an observant reader would remember as being a servant species for the Celestials. Sure enough, the Ahra Naffi and the Qonet were very skilled at manipulating life to create a wide array of organic technologies, a skill that they inherited in part from the Celestials. It is possible that this manipulation of life was in some way passed on to the Sith, but this link is being investigated at the moment. In short, the Rakata had just launched into a full scale extermination campaign against the Qonet and their arguably superior technology. As a result, the Sith were seen as a costly side-campaign.

Adas was able to use the powerful Sith warships and his battle meditation to drive off the Rakatan invaders. Although the Rakata were undoubtedly furious, they could not continue to wage war. The Rakata devised a plan. Instead of conquering the Sith, they would send a powerful fleet into the heart of Sith Space and do as much damage as possible before turning around and focusing exclusively on the Qonet. The main benefits of this plan was that it would desolate the Sith, reducing them to a non-threat while satisfying their thirst for revenge. This plan resulted in the bombing of Korriban and the death of Adas. The Rakata retreated, but it was a pyrrhic victory for the Sith whose homeworld was reduced to a radioactive waste.

For the Rakata, the plan worked. They were able to drive the Qonet nearly to extinction, but the Qonet were still able to live on in many ways. First, they passed on their technology to a descendant species, the Qella. Likewise, the ancient Kathol species that rose after them would discover their works and model their own technology on it. Finally, the Qonet were able to send a small survivor population on an evacuation route outside the Galaxy. What, if any, connection they have to other extragalactic species is currently being investigated. For the Sith however, things were much more grim. The Sith had become too dependant on Adas and Korriban. Without it, their society fell apart. Sith were stranded on whatever world they were born on and each group morphed into its own tradition. Occasionally disputes would arise between sects located on the same planet, and war would ensue. Thus begins the Age of Heresy.


	9. Ch 9: The Second Imperium of the Sith

Ch. 9: The Age of Heresy

After the Bombing of Korriban (circa. 27,700 BBY), the Sith homeworld experienced a nuclear ice age. The radiation killed much available vegetation and the fallout blocked out the sun. It is thought that this is, at least partially, what caused Korriban to become a barren waste as it is today. It is possible that some Sith were able to escape before or after the bombing, but most of the population died. It is thought that at one point the number of Sith on Korriban was only ten thousand individuals. Sith society on other worlds was not much better. While they all had the benefit of captured Rakatan vessels with their advanced technology, Sith society was just too fragmented. The reason for this is that many planets were devastated before the Rakata left and the planets had grown so dependant on Adas that without him they were unable to function. Many of these worlds were populated by simple farmers who had no access to powerful interstellar technology.

Despite this, for some this era was one of the most stable and enjoyable in Sith history. For thousands of years, primitive Sith farmers continued to subsist on their own worlds free from major wars and dictatorships. With the widespread violence in Sith history, it is easy to forget that Sith are sentient too and many probably rather peace than perpetual war. This is bolstered by the fact that many Sith during this era had little contact with the corrupting dark side traditions of their ancestors. Their religious activities became less erotic and ritualistic to become more animistic and focused on finding inner peace. Although the entire species was force sensitive, very few had formal training and for a while these Sith lived as ordinary sentients.

However, not everyone enjoyed this peace and tranquility. With their fragmentary access to the texts of their ancestors, more urban Sith would often form cults. These primitive nation states would sponsor the advancing and learning offered by the cult. They strived to protect the ancient sources of knowledge from corruption, much like in even more ancient days. With this came the threat of heresy. Cults and nation states would often war with each over over doctrinal differences. Sith would train to use the dark side for war, and chaos would be unleashed on their worlds.

This system continued on every planet. The more outer planets would be peaceful while the inner and less primitive would be more chaotic. Korriban meanwhile continued to be a lifeless husk. Eventually, the Rakata returned and used Korriban as an outer base. A an artifact known as a 'Star Map' was built to commemorate the ancient battle, and the Rakata used Korriban to experiment with dangerous dark side abilities, but other than that not much happened, at least so far as we can tell. It is unknown why the Rakata didn't return to conquer the rest of Sith Space. Perhaps the nebula was too confusing to navigate or perhaps they did not think it was worth their time. Yet another, more likely theory holds that the Rakata were engaged in yet another war of extinction, this time with the technologically advanced Gree species. After all, the ancient records indicate that they went to war not too long after the Rakata annihilated the Qonet.

The Rakata did however set up a small base on Tund, but this base later vanished when the Rakata began to decline. The Rakatan Empire eventually collapsed after a long series of events around 25,200 BBY and the base on Korriban was abandoned as well. Not long after, the planet was taken into Xim's empire and named Pesegam around 25,120 BBY. Xim did not do much with the planet, but this resulted in early contact between the Sith and humans. After Xim's empire fell, a small colony of humans was left behind. This is interesting as the Sith and humans, while both struggling to survive, were able to temporarily forge an alliance and actually get along. Eventually the human population died off, and the human species became legendary. This set a mythological precedent that humans are one of the few species that the Sith consider to be equals.

In another strange tale of friendship, a small population of Anzati somehow came across Ziost around 26,000 BBY. Originally, the vampire-like Anzati came there to prey on the ancient Sith as Anzati are force-sensitive as well, but they are able to consume the life forces of others to strengthen their own powers. However, the Anzati somehow became stuck on the planet. The Anzati became a mysterious and hidden second species on Ziost. Eventually, the Sith waged an extermination campaign which they won due to their superior numbers. However, in this conflict many Anzati were able to make peace with the Sith agreeing to trade Anzati combat and force teachings in exchange for the occasional sacrifice. From the Anzati, the Sith received many hybrid teachings and took on many Anzati customs. The Anzati survived until around 25,000 BBY, although the low Anzati population led to their species dying out on Ziost.

After the fall of the major galactic powers, things got quiet. These individual Sith worlds continued to do their own thing. This state lasted for over twelve millenia. Every now and then, one of the worlds would have contact with some spacefarer from the greater galaxy, but by and large civilization continued to exist on the pre-industrial level. Around 15,500 BBY the Sith entered their next phase of expansion. The Sith on Ziost were able to reverse-engineer ancient spacefaring vehicles and finally get their own primitive version of a hyperdrive working. These technologically advanced Sith were able to spread to the other ancient Sith worlds and form a small working unity. Thus formed the Second Imperium of the Sith.

The Second Imperium:

The Second Imperium lasted from approximately 14,800 to 13,100 BBY. It saw the Sith from Ziost bring planet after planet under their dominion in an attempt to bring back the mythical glory of the ancient First Imperium. They wanted to make the Sith strong again by spreading the doctrines and dogmas that they perfectly preserved from their ancestors. The only problem was that everyone had 'perfectly preserved the doctrines and dogmas of their ancestors' and each of these 'perfectly preserved' codes was radically different and they did not appreciate outsiders forcing 'heresy' onto their way of life. This resulted in a series of bloody wars in which the technologically superior Ziost Sith always won. However, the Ziost Sith were not stupid, they knew that they shouldn't completely destroy the traditions of the people they conquered. As a result, this knowledge was stored, most of it on Krayiss II.

As the Imperium expanded, one after another, each nation came to be a state in its territory. Eventually, even the outlying farming planets were brought under its heel. Still, the Imperium was unstable thanks to the constant vying for power on the level of the administration and the constant cultic rivalries and local wars among the citizens. As a result of this, sometime before 14,000 BBY, the Sith decided to build a massive library-temple on Krayiss II. This structure would be a depository of all Sith knowledge. From here, the Sith council could settle any doctrinal dispute and create a systematic canon. This massive structure took hundreds of years to build, but when it was finished, it was quite possibly the largest Sith structure off of Korriban. In this temple, copies of all the books, dogmas, and teachings from Ziost, the Dromund system, the Malachor system, Nilrebmah system, and Korriban were all stored. Many legends circulate about treasures and ancient teachings supposedly stored in this structure or taken from it.

From here, Sith priests passed judgement on all teachings and lifestyles. A ruthless Inquisition was established to prevent the outbreak of heresy. However, they could not protect them from the most deadly heresy, that which was within the very core of their teachings. Thus began the Hathor Heresy.


	10. Ch 10: The Hathor Heresy

Ch. 10: The Hathor Heresy

The Hathor Heresy is the name given to the event that burned the Second Imperium of the Sith to the ground, thus entering another period of dormancy. The Hathor Heresy is actually a series of massive wars, social and political upheavals, and widespread calamities all stemming from a few mistakes in Sith teachings. It began with a Sith Lord named Hathor being appointed to the rank of Grand Inquisitor. (circa. 13,100 BBY) At this time, the Imperium was already in a state of disorder. It was already over a thousand years old and while it seemed stable, tensions were rising right beneath the surface. Many of the member planets were in a state of poverty and succession looked imminent. Additionally, various illegal cults broke out among member worlds causing the Inquisition to crack down of freedoms and hunt down those spreading heresy. As a result, the office of the Grand Inquisitor was one of the most powerful positions in the entire Imperium, perhaps second most powerful only to the Emperor himself, as the Grand Inquisitor was the head of the Magisterium, or official council of all doctrinal disputes, and this council had almost free reign when it came to hunting down rouges and heretics.

Hathor was fairly young when she was chosen to be the Grand Inquisitor, many believe that she was under the age of forty. Despite her youth, her natural strength in the Force was among the highest of living Sith Lords and she was one of the most enthusiastic and conservative supporters of Sith dogmas and teachings. This is a bit unusual, considering that many of the previous inquisitors were known to use their office simply to advance their own political or monetary wellbeing. However, Hathor was ruthless and determined to set the Imperium back on the right track by preserving passed down teachings and removing those that were tacked on in the past millennia that were weakening the Sith.

It all started when Hathor made a shocking discovery. She was a bookworm who prefered to spend much of her time reading Sith history and philosophy, and one day she discovered a flaw that ran to the heart of the current Sith teachings. The actual doctrinal dispute is far too complex to go into here, but the essence was that she believed that most of the Sith teachings did not stem from the Sith at all, but were borrowed from their contact with the Killiks, Rakata, and Anzati. The reason for this is because many of the Sith teachings that founded the Order stemmed from immediately after the Killik-Sith War. Because Sith were joiners, it is likely that they passed on teachings that were originally Rakatan. Similarly, while Adas killed a most of the other dark-skinned Sith infiltrators, many of them were previously teachers who spread Rakatan influence into the heart of Sith culture; these teachings Adas was unable to catch. In the case of the Anzati, because the Anzati crash landed on Ziost, their teachings took root in the heart of the Imperium. In all, Hathor faced the revelation that not only were the sacred texts corrupted with Rakatan influence, but the teachings that founded the Imperium were as well.

The Sith teachings were built into the heart of the Imperium, and based upon Sith lore and mythology, the Sith justified their conquest and slaughter of 'lesser species' by pointing to what the, now mythological, Rakata and Killik had done to them. The revelation that most of what it meant to be a Sith was stolen from the species that they hated with a passion would, if exposed, tear the Imperium apart. When Hathor discovered this, she at first told only her most trusted acquaintances. She came to believe that all the problems the Imperium was facing ultimately stemmed from these flawed teachings. She and her followers began to redact and purge many of the Sith teachings. However, when the rest of the Magisterium found out, they were not happy. They demanded to know why she was tampering with the archives. She presented her case to them. Many were shocked, but some seem to have suspected for a while but just didn't care. The Magisterium was divided. Many wanted a full scale reformation. Others wanted to keep a lid on the discovery since if it ever broke out, it could tear their civilization apart. Still others did not care, as they thought that because the Sith teachings were so old and central it really did not matter where they came from.

After weeks of conflict, Hathor decided to call a council. He wanted to go forward with her plans for a full-scale reform, no matter the costs. However, many Sith did not agree with her. She had not yet told the Emperor what was happening as she wanted to keep the affair under the jurisdiction of the Magisterium. However, her opponents decided to get him involved. They went to the Emperor and told him what had happened. Now, it does not appear that the Emperor really understood what was happening. He seemed to think that Hathor herself was injecting Rakatan and Anzati teachings into the sacred texts. Perhaps her opponents told the Emperor the opposite just to get him riled up. It worked anyway, and he demanded that she be burned at the stake as a heretic. However, when he found out that the Council was already underway, he assumed that they were all in a conspiracy to ruin the Sith.

This anecdote should give the reader an idea of the sorry state the Imperium was in at the time. The emperors were not too intelligent nor forward thinking. They were mainly concerned with securing their own power and having massive parties/orgies. As a result, the emperors would be quick to lash out and call massive purges against any and all political opponents. This is made even worse by the fact that the emperor was changed on average every three years. A few times, there were even as many as three emperors alive at the time. This Emperor was no exception. When he heard of the council, he immediately called in the military to blow it up. It worked, and thousands of Sith priests died, but the Emperor did not care to be thorough as he assumed that things would just go back to normal.

Hathor and several of her followers survived. Luckily for her, she had many allies among the rich and powerful senators. They sheltered her and she was able to reform the Magisterium. She declared the Emperor to be a heretic and was able to assassinate him herself. In response, the late Emperor's supporters ordered a purge of all Sith priests and their friends in the senate. This created a power vacuum causing the already tense and decaying Imperium to collapse. A series of civil wars ensued for almost a century. Hathor and her followers retreated to the outer planet Tund from which their faction used as a base of operations. Eventually, several of the other factions were able to travel to Tund and bomb it to oblivion.

During this, Hathor died, but her memory lived on. Many remembered her as a martyr, while others remembered her as a vile heretic who single-handedly caused the Imperium to collapse. The civil wars raged as each side created their own variations on the Sith dogmas and tried to impose these on everyone from either Ziost or Korriban, which became the main capitals of either faction.

Eventually all factions of the original wars fell apart into their own nation states. After decades of throwing bodies at each other, nobody had strength to hope to rule all of Sith space. However, personal vendettas and grudges could not die even as each faction split into several. Each faction then launched a series of crusades against their rivals. After almost a century of civil wars, the Sith Crusades lasted almost two. Eventually, after over 250 years of fighting, many of the warring planets began to experience the effects of a nuclear winter. Seeing that their planets were dying, the Sith did the only thing a reasonable Sith could do- launch one more campaign of absolute annihilation to inflict the curse on everyone else. As a result, almost every Sith world experienced a nuclear holocaust.

The only worlds that were able to escape the apocalypse were those small and insignificant outer farm worlds. As a result, things went back to the way they were before the Imperium. The farm worlds continued to do their thing, while every other world became like how Korriban originally was. Even to this day, these planets have a much higher level of background radiation in comparison to other planets, although the fallout has long since decayed to the point where it it harmless. As a result, by around 12,700 BBY, the Sith entered another period of dormancy, this one lasting for almost six thousand years.


	11. Ch 11: Ku'ar Danar: Prophet of Darkness

Ch. 11: Ku'ar Danar: Prophet of Darkness

Over five millennia after the Sith went into the Second Dormant Period, in a completely different area of space, the being who would come to be known as Ku'ar Danar was discovered around 7,350 BBY. The exact circumstances of his discovery have been lost to history, but he was supposedly found as a young child in the possession of a pirate or slaver who wanted to sell him because he belonged to an unknown species. Danar was found to be extremely force-sensitive and was taken into the Jedi Order to train.

He is said to have been just over two meters tall with pale, translucent skin that always seemed to glow with its own internal light. He had long flowing hair and a delicate face with almost no nose and glowing silver eyes. Most unusually, he has three pairs of petal-like wings sprouting from his back. He could use these wings combined with the force levitation ability to fly. He was said to have been extremely beautiful and he did not seem to age once he reached what appeared to be his species version of early adulthood.

When he grew up, his strange appearance and incredible force potential made many Jedi wonder just who and what he was. Many stories began to circulate that he was a being who hailed from the Force itself. Perhaps he came from this alternate plane of reality, but why? Others believed that he was the result of some strange genetic experiment, possibly conducted by the Arkanians. Still others thought that he was a being who hailed from another galaxy. As a child, he possessed abilities on par with those of Jedi masters, and when he grew older, many regarded him as one of the most powerful members of the Order. Many suspected that he could become one of the most powerful Jedi of all time. He had a muscular build but was said to have had low stamina. In combat, he wielded a Jedi sword as lightsabers were new and unreliable in that era.

His story begins around 7,120 BBY. At this time, he was over two centuries in age but still looked very young. The previous Jedi Grand Master had died and many suspected that he would ascend to lead the Jedi Order. However, the rest of the council chose a human who was barely over a quarter his age and much weaker in the Force. Supposedly, when he discreetly asked one of the other most senior members of the Council, a thousand-year old Neti named Uro Koo, what the Force had said about him, the ancient master replied that the Force had simply chosen the human instead. Danar was then told that if he would take a seat and meditate upon the Force, he would understand.

While he did not do anything publicly, in private those who knew him said that his pride was severely hurt. He knew that he was the most powerful Jedi in the Order and he believed that he was the wisest and could live a thousand years as the Order's rightful guardian and protector. He was utterly baffled at how and why the Force would choose anyone else, much less some human who was like a child compared to he. He thought it was outrageous and unfair. How could he have been the best Jedi on the Council and not be the Grandmaster?

He felt as if he needed a break from the life of being a Jedi. As a result he asked the Council if he could lead an expedition into the unknown regions supposedly to navigate the hyperlanes and set up a Jedi outpost. He said that the Force had something waiting for them out there, but he could not see what. The Council accepted, and he set off.

A small group of Jedi went with him to the edge of known space, and they kept going. They used the Force to navigate the tangled hyperlanes as they pushed farther and father out. It is here that the historical records get fuzzy. Apparently, they landed on Korriban where they learned from and studied the Sith tribes. On one of the expeditions, the Jedi found themselves in a cave steeped in the dark side. Something caused the cave to collapse and Danar stayed behind to keep it up with the Force, but right when the rest of the party escaped, his strength, being leached by the dark side, gave out. He was crushed under the weight and the Jedi thought he had died. However, they could not return for the body as vicious Tuk'ata and their Sith masters launched an attack. The Jedi took their ship offplanet and returned to the greater Galaxy.

Danar was furious at them leaving him. To save his life, he did the only thing he could do: he drew heavily upon the dark side of the cave to sustain his life. The Sith sensed his commitment and power and they dug him out. The broken and bloody Danar was bandaged and taken care of by the Sith shamans. After the accident, his wings were broken and he was left with no way off Korriban. He pledged himself to the Sith teachings and learned all he could from them.

It is unknown how technologically advanced the Sith as a society were at this time. Due to the sheer amount of leftover technology from previous eras, it is likely that they were a strange hybrid of primitive and spacefaring technology. As a result, it is possible that they had access to hyperdrives. Somehow Danar was able to escape Korriban decades later. He eventually made his way back to the greater galaxy. He was able to conceal his dark side aura and find the Jedi.

The Jedi welcomed him in and he told them all about his journey, or at least a version of it. However, after a while he began to teach them many of the things he had learned from the Sith. He taught them the nature of the dark side. Because of his reputation as a great Jedi and their overall unfamiliarity with the dark side after so long of not having a major war against its followers, Danar's influence was able to spread far and wide by the time they decided to move against him. In 7,083 BBY a Jedi strike team was sent to capture him. The team was composed of six Jedi Masters, two of whom were on the Council. The Jedi found him on Dantooine, not far from the site that the Jedi planned to build a new training facility on. The records say that he was investigating some type of crystal cave, but they are obscure as to his real intention. The Jedi confronted him on the plains. It is unclear what exactly happened, but days later the bodies of the Jedi were found lying on the plains, many of their weapons half buried in the mud. It is unclear how they died. Some are said to have been partially disintegrated, while others appeared to have been killed by having their bodies chopped to bits as if by a lightsaber- even though Danar never wielded a lightsaber. One was found to have sustained no visible injuries whereas another appeared to have clawed his own eyes out, as under his nails was dried blood and gore. Most of the Jedi's eardrums were found severely damaged. A few bodies showed signs of blunt force trauma, and the surrounding land looked as if a tornado had touched down not too long ago. One trail of footprints left the killing field, but these ended when the soft ground gave way to a rocky mountain.

They never found Danar as he vanished. Years later the Dantooine training facility was built in honor of the Jedi who had died. Danar was remembered in the campfire stories that Jedi padawans would tell each other at night. In all, things seemed like they would soon go back to normal. However, it was not to be. For decades, and some would say even centuries leading up to Danar's return, the Jedi had been debating what it meant to be a Jedi. Some came believe that the Jedi teachings were flawed. Others debated what powers or mindsets should or should not be allowed. Danar's appearance only added fuel to the fire. Decades later in 7,003 BBY, the Jedi Order formally split, an event that came to be known as the Second Great Schism. Danar meanwhile had gone back to Sith Space to work on one of his own projects, something that would be the greatest display of Force power the galaxy had ever seen.


	12. Ch 12: The Hundred Year Darkness

Ch. 12: The Hundred Year Darkness

The Hundred Year Darkness is a series of wars, social upheavals, political turmoil, and economic hardship that lasted a century. The events leading up to it date back centuries, if not millennia. First, there was the ongoing feud between Coruscant and Alsakan. The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth Alsakan conflicts are all major contributing sources of the violence that marks this era, although the Alsakan conflicts are usually forgotten about and lumped into the wider conflicts of the era. The Corellian Empire also fought a series of wars against either side, and many outer rim planets were in a state of uproar and many sought to withdraw from the Republic. The source of this chaos dates back centuries to a web of alliances formed between Republic member worlds as well as with some outside the Republic. The overall chaos caused severe economic shortages and many planetary governments were overthrown. To map out the entire series of wars as well as its causes is the subject of many other books, but we are focused on the spark the ignited it: the Second Great Schism.

The Schism was a conflict of light and dark within the Jedi order. Many Jedi thought that certain abilities were permitted, other reformists thought that they should be restricted. The High Council itself was divided with a series of grandmasters pushing either for or against reform. By the time of the schism, a Neti named Uro Koo was grandmaster and he pushed for reform. However, many council masters were against it, most notably the Sephi Karness Muur. After years of debates that often ended in shouting matches between both parties, several very prominent Jedi Masters were declared to be heretics and asked to hand in their lightsabers. A few did, but most did not comply. A large contingent of Jedi left the Order and a series of heated lightsaber duels ensued as the Jedi from the reformist party tried to arrest the heretics.

The schism was messy with no middle ground. While the reformist party is remembered as being the true branch, it was really more of a split down the middle. Jedi heretics saw the Grandmaster as running a Jedi dictatorship and the reformists as his cronies. The reformists saw the heretics as dark Jedi in disguise. They fought each other, but the war was self-contained. However, the two orders relocated to different planets. The reformists kept Ossus while the heretics set up a base of operations on Coruscant, not far from the Senate.

Three years after the split, the Eleventh Alsakan conflict was set off (circa. 7,000 BBY). Coruscant backed by the Jedi heretics fought Alsakan backed by the Jedi reformers. Due to the intervention of the Jedi on both sides, this war dragged on for close to two decades. Jedi on either side served as generals on the front lines, often focusing on the opposite side force users. Similar, Jedi on both sides boosted their fleets with Battle Meditation and communicated with each other using telepathy. In the end, the Alsakan forces were able to blockade Coruscant for long enough to force a surrender. However, with the change in power, government policy had to be renegotiated causing a severe economic collapse. A galaxy-wide depression ensued causing severe turmoil in the outer rim. To fix this, economic policies were implemented which helped the outer rim but hurt planets such as Corellia. Meanwhile, the Jedi heretics flead the Republic to regain their strength in the free Outer Rim planets.

The war and economic collapse caused many of the outer rim systems to form alliances amongst each other. Fifteen years after the end of the Eleventh Alsakan conflict, Corellia decided to withdraw from the Alsakan-controlled Republic. (6,966 BBY) This triggered a two year long war between them before Coruscant was able to forge a treaty of alliance with Corellia. Thus began the Twelfth Alsakan Conflict. This war raged on for seven years, during which time, the Jedi heretics, now full Dark Jedi, joined in to back Coruscant. With their help, Coruscant eventually won, but the Dark Jedi were depleted in numbers. Instead of surrendering, Alsakan left the Republic anong with many other planets (6,955 BBY). The Jedi controlled Ossus then switched sides. Now Coruscant controlled a broken Republic that contained two groups of Jedi that hated each other's guts.

This state of having two groups of Jedi serve one Republic lasted for a decade. However, a series of conflicts led to many outer rim worlds leaving the Coruscant controlled Republic. (6,945 BBY) The Dark Jedi were, in general, more well liked by the outer rim planets. They voted to let the Dark Jedi rule the Republic, however Coruscant passed a law banning them. There were many other factors, but the issue of Jedi control was one of the most hotly debated topics. After several worlds declared their independence, the Dark Jedi left the Republic to fight with the Separatists.

After a three year long war, Coruscant did not have the strength to stop them. However, Alsakan saw this as a sign of Coruscant's weakness and attacked again. The Thirteenth Alsakan conflict ended after a year with Jedi-backed Coruscant pulling a surprising win. (6,940 BBY) Now with Coruscant controlling Alsakan and the burned-out Republic, the Galaxy went into a thirty year state of cooldown until the War of Darkness broke out in 6,910 BBY.

In the aftermath of the Thirteenth Alsakan conflict, the Republic was greatly reduced in size thanks to the independence of many outer rim planets. Many of these planets harbored Dark Jedi, but they were too disorganized to cause much chaos. It is into this state of cooldown that Ajunta Pall, the first true Sith Lord, grew up in after being born in 6,947 BBY.

Let's check back in on Ku'ar Danar:

After escaping from known space, Danar made his way to a remote corner of Sith space known as the Nilrebmah system. He apparently took refuge in an old library on one of the planets of the system, and he spent over half a century studying and meditating there. Many believe that during this time he was planning his final ritual. After this, he went back to greater Sith Space and recruited dozens of followers to his cause. His two most trusted and well-educated followers were named Moloch and Beelzebub. These two appeared to think of Danar as some type of divine entity and while they were strong in the Force, they never challenged him. It is from their records that historians even know what happened in the Nilrebmah system.

To mention briefly some details about the Nilrebmah system, it has over thirteen rocky 'planets' however most of these are just large asteroids. Exactly how or why Nilrebmah came to be known as having over thirteen planets is unknown. It is highly likely that whoever discovered the system simply said 'thirteen' but meant 'three' or perhaps he was just really bad at counting. Additionally, its remote location likely hindered the efforts of the Intergalactic Union of Astronomers (IUA) efforts to inspect the system, as the IUA at that time ran a dictatorship on what got to be called a planet and what's not a planet- and they were very serious about it. The three 'real' planets are II, X, and XIII. Planets II and X still support life, but originally all three did. The system is extremely difficult to get to as all hyperspace lanes leading up to it are unstable, and the system, in some circles, is regarded as cursed. Apparently legends circulated about the tragedy that happened on XIII and the entire system is believed to best be avoided. Despite this, the exact nature of the tragedy is not widely known, and many just know the system as a cursed place where some horrible event took place millennia ago.

Danar intended to build a massive stone structure which would serve as a focusing lens for his power. He then intended to use the power that it gave to conduct a massive ritual. Details are sparse, but later Sith seem to be under the impression that it's purpose was to drain the life of his followers to grant himself immortality, but the exact details are unknown. Additionally, as Danar seemed immune to ageing, bodily immortality seems like an odd prize, but don't question the greed of the Sith. To build his structure, first he was able to obtain several large hyperspace enabled transport ships. Beelzebub appears to have had knowledge about hyperspace suggesting that his group of Sith were one of the more technologically advanced groups.

Danar travels to Nilrebmah II, a warm tropical planet, and is able to use Sith sorcery to enslave the minds of the small native population. It is unknown what species the natives belonged to, but it is highly likely that they were a type of Sith offshoot. Archeology in this system has been difficult due to shifting hyperspace lanes, but the ruins of their civilization appear to be very similar to the ruins of other early Sith settlements. According to the records of the early Sith Imperiums, they had knowledge of this system. Additionally, the Sith were known to have had a few small enclaves on some of the further out planets. However, the system was abandoned for unknown reasons not long before the Hathor Heresy broke out, so if there were any leftover Sith, they would have had very little connection to greater Sith Space.

He then takes these enslaved natives and uses them to harvest a species of force-sensitive crystal from Nilrebmah X. These stones are then transported to Nilrebmah XIII where they are used to construct a massive obelisk. The exact details regarding what actually happened when the obelisk was complete is unknown as there was a lack of surviving witness to document it. From what we can gather, the ritual began and ended in 6,947 BBY, and it drained the life force of every living being on the planet. It is believed that Danar died in the tragedy, but there is, of course, no way to prove this as the body was never found and there are no surviving witnesses.

The results of the ritual are threefold. First, the Force itself was twisted in the direction of the dark side which created a shockwave that any powerful force user in the galaxy could have felt. The result of this Force manipulation is that for the next few hundred years, the dark side clouded the precognitive and extrasensory abilities of the Jedi. Perhaps this is why the Sith were able to grow in power without the Jedi's knowledge in the following centuries. Second, the planet itself became like a hole in the Force. The dark side was reported to have been so strong there that it appeared to bend the very fabric of reality. According to legend, notable Sith such as Darth Vahl, Vitiate, and Naga Sadow were said to have discovered it like this. Finally, whatever happened caused the planet's orbit to shift slightly. Over the next few thousand years, its orbit decayed until the planet collided with Nilrebmah XII, a dwarf planet in one of the system's asteroid belts in 3997 BBY. This caused the dark side stain to seemingly spread and now the entier asteroid belt is tainted with the Dark Side, although in a lower concentration. The remains of the two planets (or planetoid, whatever) remain as a single volcanic planet constantly being bombarded by meteors and asteroids. The molten planet itself is still highly concentrated with the dark side, but other than that all evidence of the event is gone.

There are some old spacer legends that hold that before the planets collide, the spirit of Danar was encountered and defeated by a band of time traveling explorers. The actual history is that while there was a large battle fought in the Nilrebmah system during the Great Sith War, all this stuff about time travelers is completely fabricated. It was revealed to have all been an elaborate hoax based upon blending strange events reported by historical documents with old campfire tales. It is unknown if the ritual had any lasting effects other than the discoloring of the Force, but the legend of Ku'ar Danar would inspire many generations of Sith, none the least of which are those who became the first true Sith Lords in the aftermath of the Hundred Year Darkness.


	13. Ch 13: Jedi Paragon

Ch. 12: Ajunta Pall: Jedi Paragon

Ajunta Pall was said to have been born in 6,947 BBY, although documentation is sparse. He was born under unknown conditions and his adopted family was forced to keep moving as a result of the constant wars. Growing up and in his early teenage years he worked on a series of freighters running supplies across the galaxy. In this time due to the fighting, the spcelanes were mostly lawless and ports were constantly being disputed. However, when he was seventeen he was found and taken into the Jedi order, as in those years it was common to accept adults who showed potential into the Order. The Jedi were even more desperate for members as they had lost most of the Order in the series of wars against the dark Jedi.

When Pall was found, the first thing the Jedi noticed was his immense raw Force potential which oddly enough appeared to be dormant despite its latent strength. Thousands of years later, the Jedi turned Sith Revan was noted as being like the 'heart of the Force.' For Pall however, Jedi remarked that looking at him through the Force was like looking out into a vast and calm ocean. It is remarkable that when found, he had no knowledge that he was force sensitive at all and was not known to have had any violent outbursts of power, nor any more skilled conscious uses of the Force. This is remarkable because once he learned to use the Force, he describes it as being as natural to him as breathing.

The Jedi have what's known as the 'Vergence Theory' to explain this phenomena. A force vergence is similar to a force nexus, which is the proper name for a location or item especially strong in the Force, except a vergence is centered around a person and is usually inaccessible to anyone else. (some people use the term 'vergence' to describe a nexus, but according to the Jedi, this is a misuse of the term) It is unknown if the person creates the vergence through their sheer power, or if the vergence somehow centers on a person and endows them with their power, as vergences are so rare that it is difficult to study. According to the theory, when a person is the center of a vergence, the vergence is able to shield their Force signature from being detected except by those actively looking for the power. Additionally, due to the immense connection to the Force required to form a vergence, it is thought that the person is always subconsciously aware of the Force, but as it is omnipresent in their lives, they cannot at first tap into it as they do not know what feeling or sensation to look for. Evidence for the Vergence Theory is provided in the persons of Leia Organa Solo, Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and Kyp Durron. According to most studies, these four are some of the most powerful force sensitives on record and yet they were all well past the classic acceptance age of becoming a Jedi and still ignorant about their Force sensitivity. Leia was in her mid twenties when she found out, Luke was twenty, Anakin was ten, and Kyp was in his early teens. None of them were known to have consciously used the Force without training, and none of them were able to be detected in the Force until they began their training. The Vergence Theory holds that a vergence in the Force protected them from being detected. Some believe that this was the case for Ajunta Pall and potentially others as well.

Due to his power, the renowned master Uro Koo, who had stepped down from the position of grandmaster after the end of the Eleventh Alsakan conflict, took him as an apprentice. During this time, Pall learned to use the Force extremely quickly, and in little time he was the equal of any knight in the Order. After less than a decade, Pall was declared to be a full-fledged knight and three years later he was declared to be a master in 6,918 BBY, just over twelve years after finding out his Force potential. The reasoning is because Pall was not only extremely powerful, but calm, thoughtful, and knowledgeable as well. In all, he was the perfect model of the next generation of Jedi. When he wasn't meditating or running through lightsaber drills, he would be reading up on Jedi history and philosophy. He would also be very concerned about the state of the Galaxy, and whenever he was on a mission he would look to help as many as possible, and he would do so with serenity and care, always out to minimize suffering and to do his duty in the most effective manner possible.

However, looking back, many Jedi realized that he had a few disturbing tendencies that should have been addressed. He was not remorseful about killing, and would even kill in cold blood. This was not often, but when he took a life, he was always said to have had the same emotionless stare and utter willingness with no regret. When asked about this, he responded that a Jedi kills only when absolutely necessary. Similarly, unlike the dark Jedi, a true Jedi would not give into their emotions and that a Jedi should remain calm and in control in every moment, especially in combat. These two maxims combined to create the mentality that when a Jedi kills, a Jedi should be completely willing and feel no regret about the life taken as it was for the greater good, and, of course, the fact that the victim probably deserved it. Taken by itself, this does not seem too alarming, but he extended the logic. Since a Jedi could kill when there was a serious and present threat, there is no difference between killing in combat and killing in cold blood, as long as the victim posed a serious threat. In his private journals that historians were able to recover, he writes of the hypocrisy of those who gladly kill in combat but are squeamish when faced with a defenseless prisoner. While he did believe in taking prisoners, this was only if the victim stood no chance of escaping justice and when taking a prisoner would not endanger his own life or the lives of others.

One thing that he writes about being troubled by is the fact that in the past wars Jedi would lead armies as military commanders. This troubled him as while he was fine with killing in a controlled setting and when the victim was a danger, military commanders would have to send their own people to their deaths and in war it was in a very chaotic state using people who had no Jedi training. This is particularly problematic as as an apprentice and a knight, he had to travel to many planets engulfed in civil wars. On these planets, the Jedi made many unsuccessful attempts to end the violence, although there were times when the Jedi were successful in bringing the warring factions into a unified whole. He writes in puzzlement about how in civil wars, after it is over people can go on living as neighbors to the people they wanted dead before. He then writes about how 'war crimes' are disproportional. When someone on the winner's side kills thousands for victory, they are a hero. When someone did the same on the other side and is captured, they are a monster. Similarly, in war one is expected to mercilessly kill the enemy, but what crime did the other person do to deserve death? He came to believe that one should only be killed if they are a threat, but the enemy soldiers were threats only because they were on a different side, a completely arbitrary fact of the matter.

Despite these troubles simmering just beneath the surface, Pall was one of the best of the younger generation of Jedi. He was appointed to be an instructor at the Dantooine Jedi Enclave in 6,917 BBY. He was a phenomenal teacher and his students would often remark on his wisdom, kindness, and experience despite being barely twice their age. The citizens of Dantooine also liked him. There are surviving clips and quotes about him constantly saving their families from Kath hounds or raiders. He was known to be a kindly man who would sit in the library reading or entertaining trainees questions about some of the most in depth philosophical questions of the Force. Two of these trainees were XoXaan and Broodica, both of whom would survive to be exiled with him later in life. Broodica in particular is noteworthy as Pall would go on to marry her much later in life.

However, one day when browsing the old records in the Enclave library, Pall encountered records detailing the legends of Ku'ar Danar. He writes in his journals about how they trouble him. He sought to know more about this mysterious individual, specifically he wanted to know what he was doing on Dantooine and what exactly happened to him. After every lead he pursued came up empty, he decided to go looking for anything he left behind in the Dantooine wilderness. This plan was not as insane as it sounds, as he writes that many records refer to Danar coming and going from a specific place closeby when he still lived on Dantooine. Many thought that he was investigating something.

Pall ventured out into the wilderness with two knights. At the time it was winter, but Pall did not want to delay. Plus, he made a strong case that in winter they would run into less problems with the wildlife as most creatures would be hibernating. They set out to explore the nearby mesas. However, in the mesas, they ran into a large gang of outlaws who attacked them on sight thinking that the Jedi were there to arrest them. In the fighting, someone set off some type of thermal detonator, and it caused the snow covered platform that they were fighting on to collapse. One Jedi died, and Pall was presumed dead. The only Jedi that survived said that he sensed their deaths. Many times, the Jedi returned looking for bodies, but due to the harsh climate and deep snow and rocks, recovering any remains was difficult.

Pall meanwhile had survived, although he was badly injured. He was able to find a warm cave, but this cave was concealed and steeped in the dark side meaning he was unable to contact anyone else for help with telepathy. Due to the snow and his injuries, he did not want to risk venturing out. In the cave, he found a small group of insect-like creatures who attacked him instantly. He killed them and for a long while after was forced to subsist on roast bug. He writes that they were a bit spicy, but tasted like Gizka. Meanwhile, the surrounding townsfolk heard of his death and were deeply sorrowful. The planetary governor decided to construct a statue in his honor outside of the Jedi academy.

In the cave, Pall did, in fact, find what he was looking for. Ku'ar Danar had been investigating a nearby burial mound known as the 'Green Chapel' which housed some sort of ancient piece of technology. However, he could not explore it at the moment. Instead, he found many pieces of old notebooks and experiments. They detailed powerful theories in Alchemy. Pall even found evidence that some of the insect life, as well as the rare albino Kath hound, were actually the results of these experiments. Most disturbing, he found what looked like rusted cages designed to hold sentient beings. Extensive notes revealed that Danar had captured some of the natives and and bought members of other species as slaves to conduct experiments on. Danar appeared to be interested in cloning and forced conception and impregnation via the Force, the ability to create life. Specifically, he wanted to create an entire species of Force sensitive warriors. These experiments did not work out quite as planned, as all of his creations were short and horribly deformed. After his abandonment, they escaped into the wild and bred into a small population. This rarely seen species came to be known as the Fairfolk and they may still exist to this day.

One of the main issues that Danar encountered was that he was unable to successfully clone his force sensitive experiments. He wrote extensively about ways to solve this, but he did not have the tools to carry out these cloning experiments. Pall took extensive notes and added to them theories of his own. He wanted to one day try and solve this dilemma, as he came to believe that there was nothing wrong with cloning or genetic manipulation in and of itself, and that the Jedi should try it out one day. However, it is unknown if he ever completed these plans. Interestingly, after returning to the Jedi academy, he stored these plans and theories in a series of almost incorruptible data cylinders which he then stored in the Enclave's basement. When the facility was abandoned in 6,915 BBY, the basement survived unscathed. When it was rebuilt much, much later in 4,050 BBY, the location to the basement was lost. Eventually, sometime during the Clone Wars or before, someone found these documents and was able to finish Pall's dream of building a facility that can clone force sensitives.

Anyway, when Pall returned to the facility the Jedi thought they were seeing a ghost. However, after a while things settled down. He wrote that finding the statue was a surprise, to be sure, but an unwelcome one. He ordered it to be taken down. He originally intended it to be stored in the basement, but it couldn't fit. He did not want to throw away such a fine piece of marble, so as a result, he took off the nameplate, put it in a remote corner of the library, and rechristened it as 'The Jedi Parthenos.' Interestingly, this statue survived the destruction of the academy in 6,915 BBY and the statue was taken back to Ossus. When the academy was rebuilt in 4,050 BBY, it was put back in its proper place. It wasn't until decades later that someone realized who it depicted.


	14. Ch 14: Knight of the Old Republic

Ch. 13: Ajunta Pall: Knight of the Old Republic

After his experience in the cave, Pall requested to go on sabbatical as he felt that he must go study what he found out about. He found the Green Chapel and was able to find a way inside. Inside, Pall found an ancient star map that showed the locations of other planets with similar maps. Pall did not know what species built the Star Map, but whoever it was had built the structure well before the Galactic Republic had even existed. After finding out all he could and taken extensive notes, he left to go find the other star maps.

Ajunta Pall left Dantooine to find the star maps in 6,915 BBY. He plotted the coordinates but came across a problem. One of the planets was not even in charted space, another was in a supposedly dangerous and mostly unknown part of space, another was in known space but in the middle of nowhere, and the last was at least a known planet but was currently under the influence of dark Jedi. Pall sent a message to the Jedi archives on Ossus asking for a detailed report on anything found at the coordinates in question. In the meantime, he plotted to visit the only known planet first.

This planet was Manaan, an ocean world inhabited by an amphibious species known as the Selkath. Recently, a substance known as Kolto was discovered on Manaan. It had healing properties and in an age of constant warfare it could prove to be valuable. For precisely this reason, nearby planets with more massive military and shipping fleets had begun to pander the planet for shipping rights. Large corporations had almost a complete monopoly on the Kolto, and they were determined to keep a firm hold on it as a series of small civil wars were raging all across the outer rim, and a much larger pan-galactic conflict could erupt any day. These companies charged massive prices, and in many locations it was cheaper to just use traditional and barbaric healing techniques like life crystals, acupuncture, magic chanting, leeches, and chemotherapy. To make matters worse, evil and sociopathic Dark Jedi controlled these even more evil and sociopathic large medical corporations.

Luckily for Pall, Manaan was technically a territory of the Republic, even though the native Selkath insisted upon doing business with companies based outside of the Republic. Therefore, Pall could easily go there, but he would have to keep a low profile. Upon arriving on Manaan, he immediately sought out the Republic embassy, as the Republic, in those days, usually set up a type of embassy on any world which it controlled, but on which their presence was not particularly noticeable. The whole reason this process was invented is because the Republic wanted to give smaller worlds, usually in the outer rim, feelings of independence so that they would be less likely to make trouble.

When he reached the embassy, the Republic officers told him that they were engaged in a type of power struggle with the large offworld corporations for control of a direct access to the Kolto. Pall was not interested at first. He asked if they knew of any type of 'Star Map' or anything like that. They said that the Selkath spoke of some type of weird underwater structure near the rift that they harvested Kolto from. They believed that when the land was dry, an ancient race of highly advanced Selkath built it, and they used this small piece of technology as an excuse to propagate rumors that they were one of the first spacefaring species- an obviously bogus legend. The embassy said that unauthorized harvesting of Kolto was illegal and that a submersible in the rift would arouse suspicion. However, they were willing to allow him to borrow one if Pall did something for them.

The problem was that the Dark Jedi often used mind tricks and intimidation to gain the upper hand in business transactions. The embassy was not above engaging in shady activities themselves and said that they are actually waiting for a Jedi to come and launch some type of secret crusade against the 'heathens.' Additionally, there was some valuable data that the Dark Jedi possesed, that the Republic had been trying to obtain for a while, but they could not as the Dark Jedi's force abilities allowed them to sense intruders. Most Jedi would have been appalled at the thought of being used as some type of assassin, but for Pall, the Dark Jedi were a clear and present threat as they denied millions access to affordable medical care and swindled both the Selkath and the Republic out of the Kolto. If they were allowed to continue, their crimes could magnify in severity. Plus, they were Dark Jedi and Dark Jedi are inherently evil. Anyone knows that. Therefore, he would be doing everyone a public service if he killed them. Besides, killing them would be no different from killing them in a state of war as the Republic considered them to be enemies. He agreed as killing them would objectively increase the net happiness of the entire universe.

However, in order to gain access to the Dark Jedi enclave, he would first have to do two things. First, he had to gain the access codes by interrogating a prisoner of war, then he would have to hack into the central Selkath computer to turn off all surveillance. The problems were that the first was considered by some to be unethical depending on what interrogation techniques were used, and the second was highly illegal. None of this concerned Pall who was above all laws as he only answered to his conscience and the Force. Pall spent lengthy periods of time talking with the prisoner who was being very uncooperative. In the end, Pall resorted to invading his mind to look for the information. However, the soldier had been trained to resist mental invasions, and so Pall spent nearly three days slowly eroding his will with drugs and the Force. Pall played back memories of terrible things the man had done in war. The guilt was too much, and he begged for death. Pall told him that the only way to escape was to tell him what he wanted to know. The man did, and Pall released him.

A few hours later, the man went into a coma. At this point, the Republic officers should have seen that Pall was no ordinary Jedi, but they went ahead with the plan. Pall hacked into the Selkath computers and was able to sneak into the Dark Jedi enclave. In the enclave, he encountered four fully trained dark knights and their master. He uses a flurry of force abilities to stun them, then cut down two. A third fell by being pulled into his lightsaber, and a fourth was then thrown against the wall with lethal force. Pall then dueled and cut down the master. However, it was not over. The enclave served as a training facility for the Dark Jedi's force sensitive offspring. Additionally, their non-force sensitive parents were watching them. These parents began shooting at him and he cut them down. The children, who has very rudimentary abilities, witnessed their parents being murdered and they attacked like animals with their training batons. Pall killed them too. He then downloaded the special information and left.

A note on lightsabers and lightsaber combat:

In this era, it was not uncommon for Jedi to use both standard Jedi swords as well as the newer lightsabers. The reasons for this is because lightsabers, in that era, were unreliable and needed to be connected to an extension cord which fed power to the blade from a battery pack worn on the belt or back. This chord was a liability as lightsabers could only function for a few minutes without it. Now, a reader may recall that lightsabers may have been invented by the Rakata and stolen by the Sith, or perhaps it was the other way around, but this is a minority theory. Either way, by 25,400 BBY, the Rakatans had access to lightsaber technology, or as it was known to the Rakata, the 'Forcesaber.' It is also possible that the 'Forcesaber' preceded the Rakata, although this is again a fringe theory.

The predecessors to the Jedi Order originally had access to this technology, but it was lost by the time of the Order's founding. The technology was later redeveloped in a much more primitive form as early as 15,000 BBY although they were not widely used until much later due to their limitations. By the time of the Pius Dea era, (11,987-10,966 BBY) lightsabers (sometimes called 'laser swords' or 'proto-sabers') were used primarily as short lived siege weapons to cut open fortifications quickly like an oversized plasma cutter, but they were also used occasionally in live combat.

The classic 'lightsaber forms' were not developed until much later. In this era, Jedi would usually learn two different styles, one for physical Jedi swords, the other for lightsabers. Lightsabers were on the whole better at deflecting blaster bolts due to their light weight, and that is mainly what they were used for. Swords were used mainly for combat with melee foes. The style developed for lightsaber use was called 'Shi-Cho' while the style traditionally used for sword combat was called 'Niman.' There was a third style called Alchaka which dates back to the very dawn of the Jedi. This style was focused on using the entire body as a weapon; it was highly aggressive and could be used with or without a weapon, although it was highly impractical with the extension cord of an early lightsaber. This style was eventually incorporated into the Teräs Käsi martial art developed by the Followers of Palawa sometime around 24,750 BBY.

However, someone eventually got sick of having to constantly switch back and forth from lightsaber to sword, and the Jedi developed the 'Makashi' fighting style. This fighting style was designed by lightsaber duelists, for lightsaber duelists. It was designed as a way to end the fight with an opponent who used Shi-Cho, although it still was not as effective against heavy swords. As a result, it is likely that Pall was highly skilled in all four early styles.

Now back to the story:

Pall describes the events in his journal. He says that he felt no guilt over killing not just the men but the women and children too. They were enemies as they threatened the very safety of the Republic itself and the untold millions who were affected by their decisions. True, it was a shame that he had to kill everyone, not just the Dark Jedi, but it was not regrettable and therefore he felt no guilt. After all, they had attacked him, and he had defended himself. Everything that he had done was in accord with what he perceived to be the proper behavior of a Jedi master. The Jedi served the Republic, but most importantly, the Force and all living things. The Republic asked him to do it, and he agreed because the Dark Jedi were abrogations in the Force that negatively affected the lives of thousands of innocent beings.

He then boarded a submersible, went to the bottom of the sea, and was able to study the ancient Star Map. He downloaded the data and returned to the surface. He left almost immediately after as the Selkath were on the hunt for a powerful rouge Jedi or Dark Jedi responsible for the deaths of some of their clients.

On the way out, Pall received two transmissions. The first was a huge file containing the information that he had requested from the archives about the unknown planets, the other was a short message alerting him that the Dantooine training facility had been attacked by a rogue Dark Jedi strike team. He immediately went back to Dantooine and found the ruins. Many of the padawans had died, but some had survived. He found Broodica and XoXaan hiding out in the wilderness and tried to comfort them. Both told him that they were leaving the Jedi Order. At first he tried to convince them to change their minds, but they wouldn't budge. XoXaan had decided to take up her family title as Marchioness of Vjun while Broodica, who had come from a much poorer family, was invited to be an adopted member of the household or at least some sort of paid servant. He wished them farewell.

In the aftermath, Pall's thoughts were troubled. As he walked through the rows of graves and the torched remains of the enclave, he realized that the Dark Jedi had done the very same thing that he had done on Manaan. For the first time, he felt guilt. What if he had acted incorrectly? He writes that both the Jedi and the Dark Jedi believed in what they were doing and both had reasons. He looked into the history of the conflicts and found that both parties saw themselves as reformers, and yet, the Dark Jedi were clearly the evil ones. After all, they did not care about the lives of innocents. Pall and the other Jedi killed, but only to protect those innocents. That was the difference. And yet, looking at the carnage they both caused, it was hard to believe.


	15. Ch 15: Specter of the Past

Ajunta Pall: Specter of the Past

When faced with a difficult moral dilemma, most sentients ignore it and continue on doing something unrelated to take their minds off of the issue at hand. Pall was no different. Upon leaving Dantooine, he was not sure if he could still call himself a Jedi. As a result, he simply continued on his mission to find the Star Maps to take his mind off the issue.

The next planet that he headed to was the wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk, although at the time it had no name and was simply an unidentified forest planet. The archives had no record of the planet's existence, but was able to locate planets nearby. As a result, Pall traveled to these worlds, but in order to make the jump to Kashyyyk, he would have to go off the network of hyperspace relay beacons.

A note on hyperspace beacons:

Hyperspace beacons are stations that use hyperwaves to establish jump points in space. They were mainly used in eras in which the galaxy wasn't as heavily explored and mapped. By 4,000 BBY, they were beginning to be phased out as navicomputers had advanced enough to calculate hyperspace jumps without needing a beacon. Similarly, by then the galaxy was much more explored so a beacon-less jump was less of a risk. Even then, most computers only had a small number of set coordinates. Beacons were still used up to the time of the Empire as they were still useful for certain sectors, plus, not all ships had good navicomputers, so it was better to be safe than sorry. In Pall's day, going off the path of hyperspace beacons was extremely dangerous, and so hyperspace exploration was uncommon.

Now back to the story:

Pall used his ship to make a series of short jumps around the planet, while he used the Force to zero in on its precise location. When he finally found it, he parked in orbit around the planet. He was able to use the Force to find the dark side signature radiating off of the star map. He guided his ship down, but due to the kilometer high trees, he had to land his ship a good distance away. When he landed, he exited his ship and hiked into the woods with ample supplies. In the forest, he was attacked by a species of large insects which he remarked as being very similar to Kinrath which populated Dantooine. He wondered why this was and concluded that perhaps the species that had originally built the star maps had also transported creatures from one world to another. Ironically, much later in life, Pall would use Kashyyyk as a secret base where he would store some of his own alchemically produced pets such as the deadly Terentatek. To feed the creatures, he imported a species of monkey-like creatures from Taris known as Tachs.

Pall fought his way through many native creatures, but he found no signs of sentient life. However, when he had almost reached the location of the map, a figure emerged from the shadows wielding a lightsaber. He pulled out his own, and he and his attacker fought back and forth for a good while until the attacker finally surrendered, and Pall sliced his lightsaber in half. His assailant was described as being an old man with pointy ears and long, savage white hair. He demanded to know his name, and the attacker responded that he was Karness Muur, a former Dark Jedi. Pall was astonished to find the famous rogue Jedi. He contemplated killing him, however Muur did not seem to be a current threat to any other sentient being at the moment. Plus, his aura in the Force did not seem to be dark, at least not like those of previous Dark Jedi that he had fought, instead he seemed to be more grey than anything.

Pall asked why and how he ended up on the uncharted planet of all places. Muur said that after his faction had been defeated decades ago, he had fled into unknown space. He had sensed something unusual on the surface of the planet, but when he had descended to check it out, his ship crashed. Pall assumed that this was why Muur seemed more grey than anything- he had distanced himself from the Jedi heretics before they had become truly dark. Muur then asked what the state of the Galaxy was like without him. Pall described the series of wars and hardships and what had happened to the Jedi and their opponents. Muur then began to lament their losses. He explained that he and the other Jedi heretics had just been trying to reform the Jedi and create a new, better order. He explained how the other faction of Jedi reformers were complete hypocrites when it came to morality, and Pall had to agree with him on that one.

They set up a campfire and Pall made dinner using his rations. Pall asked about what Muur's vision of the Jedi Order was, and Muur said that he had intended to return the Jedi to what the Order was always meant to be. He said that he had studied the ancient histories. Back during the ancient and almost forgotten about Great Schism, (circa. 24,500 BBY) the Order had broken between those who sought to reform the Order and those who had wanted to keep it stagnant. The reformers sought to expand the narrow minded Jedi doctrines to embrace other philosophies from all parts of the ever changing and expanding network of galactic civilization. The Council had originally granted them permission to open their own training academy in the Lettow system, but the Council later forbid their activities. The reformers called themselves the 'Legions of Lettow' as they sought to defend knowledge and freedom by any means necessary. In the end, things did not work out and they went to war. The Legions were defeated and the fate of the Jedi Order was sealed. Muur claimed that he and the other masters who caused the Second Great Schism were simply trying to reverse that decision and reform the Order yet again, and yet the Council had betrayed them yet again. (to see more of the history of the First Great Schism, turn to Appendix C in the back of the book)

Pall was at first skeptical about this tale. He said that it made no sense to say that the Legions of Lettow wanted to 'reform' anything as the Order was only a few hundred years old at the time. What would they reform the Jedi back to? Nonexistence? Muur then said that before the Order was formed on the planet Ossus, another Order existed. This precursor Order existed on the planet Tython and was called the Je'daii Order This Order used both sides of the Force in balance. He then said that they had been successful for ten thousand years and it wasn't until the destruction of the Tython system that the survivors had formed the modern Jedi Order. The Legions of Lettow were just trying to reform the Jedi Order back to the Je'daii Order.

Pall knew this history, of course. He had been taught it when he was a padawan. But he had never realized it's implications. The Jedi Order, the devotion to the light side of the Force, the suppression of all emotions, this was not part of what the Jedi originally were. And these tendencies did not cause the Order to implode, but rather had allowed it to stand for ten thousand years. In many ways, it made sense. After all, Jedi taught compassion, but not love. But what was compassion without love? The Jedi were taught not to kill except when to defend life. But why shouldn't Jedi be allowed to take out dangerous targets that were a threat to other living things?

However Pall retorted that the Je'daii were not perfect as they had fallen as well. The Jedi had lasted almost twice as long. Muur said that this was true, but that the only reason the Je'daii fell was because someone had thought to put restrictions and unreasonable limitations on the Order's knowledge and conduct. This then led to war between those who wanted to conserve the Order and those who wanted to change it. The Legions of Lettow were just trying to reform the Order back to that openness that the Order had previously embodied. Plus, the only reasons the past two efforts at reform failed and led to bloody wars is because the Council had taken actions against the efforts of reform. It was the Council that wanted to keep the Jedi in chains of dogma.

Pall contemplated this, but said nothing. The next day Muur leads him to the Star Map and Pall was able to download the information he sought. When he went to leave, he asked Muur to join him. After all, he said, without a lightsaber Muur would likely die in weeks. Muur reluctantly agreed, and despite their lingering philosophical differences, Pall suspected that this event would be the beginning of a long partnership.


	16. Ch 16: Knight Errant

Ajunta Pall: Knight Errant

Next, Pall made his way to the planet that would eventually come to be known as Tatooine. On the way, he had many conversations with Muur, who explained to him more about his life story. When Pall neared Tatooine, he had to try a series of short jumps to eventually come close enough to land. Once again, he used the Force to locate the precise location of the Star Map, and he guided the ship to land there.

He landed in the middle of a vast ocean of desert. Not too far away was a series of crags in which the map was located. He and Muur walked through the desert, and when they arrived closer to the crags, they saw that there was some type of strange metal structure standing above a hole in the ground. Pall could sense a weak dark side presence coming from inside, and so he and Muur creeped around the edges looking inside. At the bottom of the hole, something seemed to be alive and moving, but he could not get a good enough view. They eventually were able to scale a small ladder leading up to the top of the structure. Apparently, the facility was some type of water generation machine with a couple of small rooms attached. Moisture would be sucked out of the air and collected. In the living space, he found extensive notes and journals about biology, alchemy, and the Force rituals. (To see more of the history of Tatooine, turn to Appendix B in the back of the book)

Not long afterwards, the owner of the hut, an old lady described as having weatherbeaten features, returned. She demanded to know who they were and they told her their story. She introduced herself as Sorzus Sanguinius Syn, another ex Dark Jedi. She was part of the second or third generation of Jedi who left the Order to join the heretics, who by then had become almost completely dark side oriented. She explained that after the last Alsakan Conflict, her forces had been decimated. She went into self-imposed exile to escape the Jedi and ended up in an old Dark Jedi research station on Tatooine. There, she spent her time working on improving dark side rituals and alchemy, as well as studying the strange forms of life on the planet, such as the monstrous Sarlacc over which the research station was built. Pall, who had previous experience studying alchemy, is greatly interested in her work, however Muur expressed his disgust.

Muur thought that she was the prefect example of just what went wrong. After all, Muur and the rest of the first generation heretics wanted simply to reform the Order, whereas Syn wanted to destroy it. Additionally, for Muur, sorcery and alchemy were little more than methods used to construct trinkets whereas a true Jedi would work to increase all their powers and abilities. Syn mocked this attitude by saying that all his power is moot as through the use of sorcery and alchemy, she hardly had to fight at all. Instead, she could turn her victims minds inside out while trapping them in webs of dark side energy. While neither knew it at the time, these two would become the archetypes for the Sith Sorcerer and Sith Warrior classes in the new Sith Empire. While Muur would later become a renowned sorcerer and alchemist in his own right, perhaps the second best amongst the original Sith Lords, his powers were usually limited by and to talismans and amulets. He prefered to practice all of his abilities, primarily those that would enhance his combat prowess, and as a result, Syn was always ahead of him in alchemy and sorcery. On the other hand, Syn prefered to focus exclusively on her arcane powers and on studying rather than acting. As a result, if she was ever faced with a foe who could not be overcome by sheer force ability, she would be forced to retreat.

Pall listened to their disagreements carefully, but after a while he silenced them and asked Syn if she had seen the Star Map. She answered in the affirmative and led them there. Pall downloaded what he needed and left. On the way back to the research station, Pall asked Syn, to the slight dismay of Muur, if she would mind journeying with them. At first Pall had wanted to leave her on Tatooine, as she was very much a Dark Jedi, but she was no danger to him presently and Pall was hopeful that she and her knowledge could help reform the Order, maybe even she would come back to the light. She agreed and they left Tatooine as a group.

Pall had become convinced that the Jedi Order needed to be saved. He did not call himself a Dark Jedi, or even some type of grey Jedi, instead he thought that he could fix the Order and make it more open to those with different beliefs and skills. Looking at history, this plan was hopelessly naive, and Pall knew it. But he thought it was the only shot they had at healing the Schism, and if there was something they could do, no matter how impractical, Pall was morally obligated to do it. However, Pall's conscience was conflicted. He justified the war and his own killing of Dark Jedi because he believed that they were a grave threat and it was the morally just thing to stop them as they were endangering lives. Yet, the Dark Jedi were people too, many of whom were motivated by their own beliefs of right and wrong. Most importantly, all they wanted was a more free and less hypocritical Order. By sympathizing with them, Pall had to open himself to the possibility, however small it might be, that the Jedi Order was in the wrong. If the Jedi Order was in the wrong, then all the people who had trained him had lied to him. They were responsible for the senseless slaughter, not the Dark Jedi. And this was a conclusion Pall could not accept.

These thoughts occupied his mind as he made his way to the final planet: Korriban. While in orbit, he immediately felt the press of the dark side. As a result, he could not sense the precise location of the Star Map. He contemplated leaving, but they had already made it so far. He eventually convinced himself to touch down on the surface next to the Valley of Golg, which could be seen from orbit. Before exploring, they took many supplies and ration packs.

Over fifty years before Pall's arrival, Korriban had experienced one of its most violent civil wars in centuries- and that's saying something. After the culmination of this war, a Sith king named Dathka Graush ended up ruling all of Korriban. He continued to wage war against all rebels until entire populations were decimated. He used the abundance of corpses to experiment in alchemy, creating untold horrors. However, Graush was eventually assassinated, and one of his sons took over after hunting down the traitors. Because of the constant warfare, the Sith were in a state of disorder with many tribes having little loyalty to the king. Another interesting thing to note is that the technology of this era of Sith history seemed mostly primitive, but there were some modern devices. However, the Sith did not seem to understand the workings of some of their most advanced pieces of technology and instead used it without ever innovating or changing.

Pall and his companions were captured by one of these wandering bands of Sith. They surrendered instantly, hoping that the Sith would know the location to the Star Map. However, the language barrier proved to be a challenge. Pall and Syn were eventually able to develop a way to learn their language via telepathy, but this was only after weeks of using nothing but hand signals and grunts as a primitive form of communication.

The Sith did not seem quite sure what to think of them. They treated them with suspicion, but did not provoke them. Instead they let them tag along as they made their way closer to the center of Sith civilization. It is likely that the Sith wanted to present them to their king. The Sith potentially saw them as the gods come down due to their strange appearances and powerful Force abilities, but they were still uneasy. Guards constantly watched the prisoners, but in all, they were treated more like guests than anything. The three former Jedi learned a lot about Sith culture and history, and they were even able to learn much about their sorcery and other Force abilities by studying a decrepit holocron that the tribe carried around.

One of the Sith in particular caught the attention of the visitors. He was the son of the chieftain and was said to have incredible force potential. His name was Tulak Hord. His power and curiosity stuck out to Pall in particular who spent long hours talking with him. Pall told him about the wider galaxy, and Hord told Pall about life as a Sith. After days of hearing Pall's incredible stories, he wanted more than anything to leave Korriban and explore. Pall was not too thrilled about letting a deranged but powerful native loose in the Galaxy, but the boy had grown on him. Perhaps he could even reform him and he could be part of a new Jedi Order.

Pall had been thinking about the Jedi a lot. He had enjoyed his job as a teacher and was thinking more and more about how great it would be to create his own reformed Order, although he knew this was a pie in space fantasy. However, Pall agreed to take the boy offplanet when the Hord said that he knew about the Star Map. Hord told him about a place known as the 'Valley of the Sleeping Kings,' an ancient burial ground for great Sith kings. According to Hord, in this valley was a strange artefact that he had seen as a young child. When he had approached the artefact, he claimed that it had opened up like a giant holocron. The young boy did not know what to make of it, and left, but he remembered its strong dark side aura.

Pall was interested as this sounded exactly like a Star Map. The boy said that he could convince his dad to take a detour to the Valley, but only if Pall agreed to take him off planet. Pall considered a fair deal to be more efficient than trying a mind trick on such powerful natives, so he agreed. They eventually arrived at the valley in which Hord showed them the location. In the cave in which the Map was contained, Pall had to fight through a bunch of creatures that Syn pointed out to be very similar to Tatooine's desert Wraids. This interested Pall who was convinced that whoever had built the Maps had had a considerable effect upon the development of their vasel planet's ecosystems. The former Jedi downloaded what they needed and planned to leave.

However, the Sith chieftain did not want to let them leave. Hord suggested that he could kill his father and take his place. That gave Pall more second thoughts. However, Pall suggested they sneak out quietly after filling up their water canteens and packing food. They did just that and after days of traversing the desert and crags, they were half-dead when they reached the ship. They quickly boarded and left the planet; all around, the trip had been successful.

By now, Pall had all five Star Maps. He put together their data and it came up with a series of coordinates that were deep in the heart of the unknown regions. However, Pall was hesitant to set off just yet. He had something else on his mind. Pall was determined to come to the truth about the history of the Jedi and so he set a course for Lettow.


	17. Ch 17: Wandering Philosopher

Ajunta Pall: Wandering Philosopher

Lettow is a world rarely visited. In Pall's day, it was divided into the humid lowlands which were characterized by their dense jungles and frequent monsoons, and the arid mountains and plateaus which were known for their high-altitude vegetation and beautiful icy crags. For thousands of years, Lettow was home to a variety if Force-using religious orders. These orders build their monasteries both in the jungles as well as in the highlands. It is unknown when these orders sprang up, but it has been hypothesized that they formed not long after the First Great Schism, (circa. 24,500 BBY) although their origins could date back to well before the Old Republic existed.

After the Legions of Lettow were defeated, their teachings fell into the hands of these orders. These teachings were collected into a series of four volumes called the Four Pustakas. As the Legions of Lettow collected massive amounts of information from other Force-using orders, the Pustakas contain teachings from all across the ancient Galaxy. Additionally, the Pustakas contain lengthy histories of the early Dark Jedi masters as well as their own teachings. This wealth of information is just as beneficial to scholars now as it would have been to Pall himself. In fact, in recent years, preserved copies serve scholars quite well in determining the history of ideas and the evolution of thought leading up to and after the Schism.

The Pustakas were thought to have been inspired by the Force itself and their wisdom served as the sacred texts of the hundreds of Force using orders that sprang up after the Schism. However, these Orders were extremely diverse in their teachings. Some were highly oriented towards the Dark Side, but others focused on nonviolence and Jedi-like emotional detachment. Others focused on keeping the balance between light and dark, and some used the Force as a meager tool without worrying about these higher ideologies. Still others had views that were so alien that they could not even be described as being on the same spectrum as the others. For example, the Sankiya Order focused entirely on manipulating the Unifying Force, being able to predict various possible futures and even displace objects through space. Meanwhile the Vaishashika school focused on the manipulation of light, sound, and perception. Then the Car'danta group strictly focused on aspects of the Physical Force, that is to say that they concentrated only upon skills that could be used to directly affect the physical environment. Pall became acquainted with and learned from all of these schools and more during his stay on Lettow, but the first order he visited was the Nya-ika. The Nya-ika an order that focused entirely on strict the Living Force. They were enthusiastic historians and as a result they believed in strict determinism believing that if one knows history, one can easily predict the future. The notable thing is that all schools had strong basing in the thought of the Pustakas. However, since all four Pustakas together contain almost ten million words, there is ample room for interpretation.

Pall landed on Lettow in around 6,916 BBY. Upon landing, he told his companions that they could either go on their own journey to discover the Force on Lettow, or they could leave him. They all decided to stay on Lettow, although they would split up, each learning from a different set of Force orders. They stayed on Lettow for over a year. Pall found the Nya-ika and sought to learn from them. At this point, information on the exact order of Pall's journey becomes murky. The Nya-ika asked that he abandon all signs of his offworlder status and so he left all material possessions on his ship. For the next year, he lived on Lettow like a native would. However, he did write down a series of philosophical scrolls on parchment and when he returned to his ship, he would often reference his experiences on Lettow, so historians are able to have some idea of his travels.

The Nya-ika taught him the history of their Order and the legends of the Legions of Lettow. Beyond history, they taught him to listen to the Will of the Living Force and to always act according to what it dictated. One of the main traditions of the Nya-ika that Pall took part in was the crafting of a plasma sword. These teachings were passed down from the Legions of Lettow. Pall went out into the mountain caves to find a crystal, he then took this crystal and through a complex process was able to fuse the crystal lattice with a steel blade, the two becoming one unity. Through this combined lattice, the Force flowed, and the blade would ignite in a nimbus of energy, much like the blade of a lightsaber. This sword appeared to be lined with silver and it glowed white-hot when wielded. Because of this, Pall carved a small insignia of a flame on the hilt and named it Brisingr, a name that meant 'flame.'

While Pall studiously listened to what they taught him, he had his own philosophical differences.

First off all, the Nya-ika taught that there was only one will, the Will of the Force. They believed that this Will was a type of mind that caused all else in the universe to act according to strict deterministic rules, thereby making human wills illusionary. They thought that the Will "... sees, thinks, hears. Without effort, the Force shakes all things by the thought of His mind." They believed that this Will was a mind like others that existed in the Force itself. In fact, every consciousness was really a manifestation of this one Will. This was manifest in one of their chants that went, "I am the consciousness, I am the Will, I am the Force." However, they believed that not every mind was equal. Some were aware of this fact and others were not. Occasionally during times of great fluctuation, the Will would even manifest as an avatar- someone who is able to gain total awareness and act on it.

Pall held the opposite view. He did not believe in any type of cosmic awareness on the part of the Force in and of itself. Instead, he believed in the power of human choice. For Pall, the Force did not have a mind. It's Will was simply how it acted based upon necessity on its part. He denied that this Will was conscious or voluntary, instead, it was as if the Force were a giant computer simply reacting to the input of trillions of sentient beings and the laws of the universe.

Another point of contention was that the Nya-ika were strict monists, that is to say, they believed everything to be a single unity. They believed that the past and future were one. They believed that all space and extension were illusionary and that the universe was a single unified whole. In their cosmology, nothing, that is the absence of being, could not exist, and so the universe was full existance. Since the universe was full existence, there was no way to differentiate one part from another, as that would imply a certain nothing exists between them. They identified this single unity as being the Force. For them, we perceive extension, time, and nothing, but these are all on our heads. They believed that the sentient mind was totally empty at first, and that in and of itself, the mind was 'nothing,' that is to say the 'self' was an illusion. Since the mind was was open and literally 'nothing,' the mind could perceive the universe as differentiated. This happened by the full existence of the Force being sliced into understandable pieces by a gullible mind, while the Force in and of itself was one.

Pall countered this belief by pointing out that if it is impossible for 'nothing' to exist, then the mind can't exist if the mind or self is 'nothing.' They responded that that was exactly their point. What sentient beings perceive to be their single self is really an illusion. Pall responded that this was nonsense, as he knew that he was a thinking being and so therefore he must exist to be fooled. They responded that what we know as 'thoughts' do not exist in the same way as other perceived objects. This is a complex but essential point. 'Thoughts' cannot be located in space. The actual thought themselves cannot be empirically found, only perceived. What one perceives as 'thoughts' are really just interactions between parts of the brain and the Force itself, that is to say, they are objects outside of the mind. Since 'thoughts' are only interactions between objects outside of the mind, and all external objects are really one reality, that is the Force, the self could only exist as nothing.

Pall was not sure how to launch an offense against this mind screw, so he changed his avenue of attack. The Nya-ika said that a mind simply uses nothing to slice the unity of the Force into multiplicity, but this is an illusion. Pall countered that if the Force, and by extent the universe, was full unity, that is to say undifferentiated, and the mind was nothing, or an illusion, it made no sense to say that one impressed a series of differentiated perceptions on another. This is again very complex, but essential to understanding Pall's mindset. Pall thought of it like this: if the universe was homogenous, and the mind was also homogeneous, then where can the patterns that their interactions create come from? One day, Pall held up a wooden spoon and asked if the spoon didn't exist, and the mind had no knowledge of the spoon before perceiving it, how could he witness a spoon's existence? They countered that his point would be the case if and only if there were only passive minds, but they said that there was an active mind.

They said that since the sentient mind was noting, it had no innate ideas and could only receive impressions. However, a completely active mind that already held these ideas would cause the sentient mind to differentiate the universe. Pall challenged that by their definition, a sentient mind could not have these ideas, and if so, where was this mind with fully innate ideas? They said that this mind was the Force itself. Therefore, they could achieve full unity between thought and matter while accounting for the differentiating of the universe as we perceive it. All is one, the Force, which is the only truly free Will. Of course Pall could not accept this. This started a huge debate on what is the Force as we perceive it. Is it the sum total of all reality, or is it simply another aspect of reality like gravity or electromagnetism?

In the end, Pall would not recant his beliefs and so he left over metaphysical differences. Pall traveled to many other orders learning as much as he could both about the ancient Legions of Lettow as well as well as about the various philosophical schools that sprang up after their fall. However, the teaching and arguments of the Nya-ika stuck with him. While he could not fully accept their positions, this thinking of the Force as a sum total of reality from which one could divine guidance would continue to vex Pall. Eventually, by seeking to understand this unity, Pall was able to make a breakthrough and finally see the Force in its entirety, a revelation which will be covered next chapter.


	18. Ch 18: The Divine Conversation

Ajunta Pall: The Divine Conversation

Ajunta Pall left Lettow changed. He no longer believed that the Jedi were in the right. His stay on Lettow had convinced him that the Force was far, far too much for any one group to monopolize. The Jedi, in their devotion had placed dogmas and restrictions upon the Force. They thought that they could own it, that they could dictate it, but the Force could not be understood like that. Pall believed that if he were to even begin to understand the great mystery, he would have to study all its aspects, not just the narrow, dogmatic view of the Jedi.

Pall did not know what to do. He no longer believed that the Jedi could be saved. They were far too set in their ways leading up to the original schism, and now after a series of brutal wars, there was no way that they would be willing to open their eyes to reform the Order. The only solution was for the Jedi Order to be burned to the ground for that Pall could build it better the second time around. But he could not do this. Not only did he not have the means, but even if he did, he could not wage war against them.

His moral compass had broken. At one time, he had been willing to kill the Dark Jedi whom he saw as a plague on the Force, but he had been misguided. The both the Jedi and the heretics were plagues. One caused unnecessary suffering, the other caused stagnation and ignorance to the higher mysteries of the Force. But how could he turn against the Jedi? Wouldn't he be no better than the heretics he had once killed? Plus why did it matter anyway? Who cared if the Galaxy remained ignorant of the Force? But no, he could not allow this either. If the Jedi were willing to embrace the true nature of the Force, or at least be open to other points of view, then their job of protecting all life would be much easier. Or would it?

Pall did not know. He had left his companions on Lettow. The reason for this is because he just did not want to talk to anyone about it. Instead he turned to the scrolls and holocrons he had brought with him. In particular, he had come into the possession of an ancient Sith Holocron from his time on Korriban. Many historians believe that this was when Pall fully committed himself to the dark side. However, this seems to be a very narrow view. In his journals, he writes about being disgusted by all, followers of the light and dark sides alike. It would be uncharacteristic of him to fully commit himself to one extreme. Rather, it is more likely that he was in a grey phase.

Alone on his ship, he writes of his despair. Many times, he contemplated killing himself just to end it. He had some rope, maybe he could hang himself. But no, he realized that that would not work. His survival instincts would kick in and his tremendous strength in the Force would snap the rope. He could use the Force to blast open the cockpit, ejecting himself into hyperspace. Or perhaps even do something as simple as turn on his lightsaber with the emitter pointing to his head, but he could not bring himself to do either of these. As much as he wished for the loneliness and vertigo to end, he felt called to do something, to use his life to serve the Force and by extent all life.

In the end, he decided to go to the only planet that could possibly hold answers: Tython. However, there was one problem; the planet Tython was located in the Deep Core, an uncharted web of incredibly unstable hyperspace routes. In the past several millennia, the Jedi had made many explorations into the core to find Tython, some successful, some not. However, even when they found the planet, the routes would rapidly change and soon the planet would be lost again. Pall did not know how to even begin to find it, but he had to try. He decided that should he die in a terrible hyperspace accident, at least his journey would be over and he had given it his best shot.

Just approaching the Core was tough. He traveled to the very edge of the web of hyperspace beacons linking the stars of the Galaxy together. Once at the edge, he turned to the Force. He sensed its currents. Powerful Jedi were able to probe the force to navigate uncharted star systems, and Pall had learned this ability back when he was still a padawan. The Force appeared as a crystal with a billion facets, he probed in, searching for weaknesses, shatterpoints. When he found one, it appeared like a glowing line towards his destination. He plugged in the corresponding coordinates to his navicomputer and jumped to hyperspace. This process was repeated over a half dozen times until he emerged in the middle of a vast expanse of stars.

His ship could not make the final jump due to the presence of too many stars on either side. His computer was just not precise enough to complete the journey, even with the help of the Force. He had come so close, but could push on no further. In his desperation, he turned to the Sith Holocron looking for something to help him. At last, he remembered a technique buried deep in the holocron that he had learned but had been too scared to experiment with: the Force Storm. It was the ability to reach through the fabric of space and rip open a hyperspace hole using the Force. Such an act would cause a great disruption in the Force, but could possibly work. It was the same ability that King Adas and the other ancient Sith had mastered and used so long ago. However, while they could fuel the storm with sacrifices, Pall had nothing. He would have to sacrifice his own life force.

He reached out into the billion faceted gem of the Force and found the path. He then focused all of his anger, frustration, and willpower. The Force rushed out of him like a hurricane, and the massive gaping maw of a hyperspace wormhole opened up in front of him. His ship fell in and was transported through the void to Tython.

(For more information on Tython, see Appendix D)

When his ship emerged, he had just enough strength left to park it in orbit before he passed out. When he awoke, he briefly surveyed the planet from orbit before choosing a landing place. He landed near the ruins of Vur Tepe, an ancient Je'daii temple built out of a Tho Yor ship. At once, he set to work trying to find out any relevant history, however time had removed almost all traces of the once great civilization. Pall was able to find an ancient weapons forge. He spent several days crafting a Force-imbued vibrosword.

When he was finished, he sat down to meditate. He reports that at once he experienced the Force as a single, unified totality. He writes that it was one of those experiences beyond the ability to be put down into words. He describes it as talking to the Force itself. The experience could not be described, only shown by the Force. He seemed to become the Force, to realize the total unity of the one with the all. In this way, he was able to not only experience the Force, but to see possible futures branching off from the present like cracks on a frozen lake. He could feel the ebb and pull of its currents as time moved from one possibility to another, but at the end of the steam, he saw something horrifying. He saw death and decay. He saw the various streams of time being swallowed up by a growing cancer. He saw all things dying, even the stars burning out. He witnessed the death of the Force itself.

When he snapped back to the profane world, he freaked out. He reports that he spent almost a week living like a beast in the wilderness. When he finally recovered, he realized what he had to do. He was determined to rebuild the Jedi Order by any means necessary- even if he had to burn the old to the ground.

To him, the Jedi were not innocent. They deserved to be destroyed. Their failed teachings had sparked war after war. They had turned the Galaxy into a charnel house, and Pall was determined to end it before the cycle could continue, before the echoes of death caught up with the Galaxy causing the Force to be extinguished from the Galaxy.


	19. Ch 19: Morality

Ajunta Pall: Morality

In war, what did the enemy do to deserve death? In war, the goal is to kill indiscriminately in order to accomplish some abstract objective. What is this objective? For the individual it's simple: obey the commanding officers in faith that you are doing it for the greater good. For an army, it's to complete whatever objective the high command gives you. For the generals, admirals, and others planning the war effort, it's to disable the enemy nation or organization. But on the individual level, why do you have to send people to die? Why does the enemy have to die? One could say that it's for the greater good, but then why is it all of the sudden immoral to kill for the same reasons outside of war? Perhaps it's because the enemy poses a clear threat. But if this is the case, then how can once a peace treaty is signed, one can go back to living side by side with the former enemies? Does every person all of the sudden stop being enemies? Apparently, but why was each group willing to kill in the first place? These are the eternal questions that Pall struggled with.

In his life, he had seen the aftermath of decades of war. Each side had hurled bodies at the other only to sign an inconclusive treaty that put everything 'back to normal.' But why must this be the case? What is the point?

In war, there is no point, no morality, no ethics. Every side more or less believed in what they were doing. Soldiers did what they did for mostly noble reasons, either to protect their family or nation. They see it as self defense. In normal circumstances, self defense is justified, and the defendant is innocent. But in war, does it matter who is the aggressor? From the point of view of the millions killed by shrapnel, mustard gas, and enemy fire, they are the noble ones fighting in defense of those they love. In normal circumstances, it is wrong to kill an innocent person. How can anyone make sense of a scenario in which everyone is simply fighting in self defense? And even if one nation is the aggressor, whose fault is it? Certainly the enemy soldier disintegrated by a mortar blast was just doing what he believed in. Should the officers or politicians be blamed? Perhaps. But what if they were only preemptively attacking a perceived threat?

The Jedi taught that it was acceptable to take a life if and only if the enemy was a clear and present threat to the wellbeing of others. By this logic, the Jedi justified leading armies as battlefield generals and commanding fleets as admirals. The enemy soldiers were clear and present threats, so they must be eliminated. But for what goal. The past conflicts had been civil wars started by certain planets seeking to gain control of others. But why does that matter? Doesn't every person live under the thumb of another being all the time?

As much as Pall tried, he could not form any idea as to what was right and what was wrong. It seemed so absurd, so relative. Pall sought to apply an objective standard to war. It is impossible to make sense of, it is impossible to rationalize your friends and family being mowed down by artillery fire and drowning in blood and acid from gas.

In the end he was left with but one maxim: act on the desire to create the conditions necessary to prevent chaos from happening again. The last few wars had been a series of civil wars, and so to prevent that from happening again, Pall needed a way to either unify the Galaxy. The Galaxy had to be utterly sick of war. There must be a war so terrible that just the thought of it happening again would be enough for everyone to put aside their petty conflicts. But more than that, Pall would have to destroy the very foundation that caused such conditions to ferment. He would have to destroy the Jedi and tear down the foundations of the Republic.

Upon deciding this, he used his navicomputer to plot a reverse course to escape from the twisted knots of the Deep Core, and he set a path to Lettow. Upon arrival, he sought out those who had journeyed to the planet with him and told them of what he had experienced. Surviving fragments from their notebooks all make one thing clear- Pall had changed. It was like talking to a completely different person, a total stranger. Hord writes that it was like one of the Immortal Gods of the Sith had come down to the physical realm and was standing in front of him. Muur writes that the young man had changed and that now it was like talking to one of the legendary masters of old. Syn notes that it was like talking to the avatar of the Force itself. During their stay on Lettow, they had come to believe many of the same things, and so they left with him.

Their first goal was to investigate the mysterious object in the unknown regions that the coordinates pointed to. However, the unknown regions, at that time, were especially perilous with unstable hyperlanes that led to who knows where. In order to launch a proper expedition, they would need the necessary probe and advanced computing technology that real expeditions had. They spent months traveling and looking for a way until they encountered Remulus Dreypa.

Dreypa was a former Jedi knight who had left the order due to personal disagreements. He had returned to his homeworld Pelagon where he took upon the title 'Baron' which was bestowed upon him by his family. Despite his wealth and power, Dreypa was still not satisfied and he always sought to find a way to strike back at the Jedi. Pall was able to figure this out quickly and he used it to his advantage.

Pall convinced Dreypa to join his cause whereupon Dreypa lent him the funds necessary to finance the expedition into the unknown regions. However, Dreypa said that he knew of another former Jedi who could help them, a Marchioness from the planet Vjun named XoXaan. Pall was surprised to hear of XoXaan after so long, and he agreed to have Dreypa arrange for a meeting.

The meeting was scheduled a standard month later, and in the meantime Pall financed his unknown regions expedition. He obtained a small fleet of scout ships and probes, as well as an advanced encryption system to keep the location of the planet and any discovered details secret. When the meeting finally took place, Xaan had already been told what it would be about by Dreypa. Xaan was interested as she had considered rejoining the Order in the past, but didn't due to the unresolved issues that the Order retained. She agreed to Pall's plan and together, she and Dreypa began using their resources to seek out other former Jedi. However, their movement was not violent, at least not in the early stages. None of them had the resources to strike at the Republic and so they simply worked to get their new Order going before committing to any course of action.

A safe route into the unknown regions was discovered only days later. Dreypa, Pall, and a few others ventured out. The planet that they discovered came to be known as Rakata Prime. It was a blue green world that was the homeworld of the Rakatan Infinite Empire almost 18,000 years previously. However, what impressed the travelers the most was not the planet itself, but the massive structure in orbit around it. This construction was the legendary Star Forge. A weapon said to be able to break the spine of the galaxy.

Details on the Star Forge and the fall of the Rakata will be discussed next chapter.


	20. Ch 20: The Fall of the Rakata pt1

The Fall of the Rakata Pt. 1

The Infinite Empire fell (circa. 25,200 BBY) due to a variety of reasons. The exact history of the Rakata and the events leading up to their fall could be the subject of another book entirely, but here I will give a brief explanation.

The main causes of the Empire's fall were threefold. First, after bringing every other galactic civilization to their knees, the Rakata turned on each other. This infighting spread across multiple levels of the Empire with the outer planets fighting the inner planets, and the inner planets locked in a series of civil wars. Second, capturing Rakata Prime, or Lehon, as the planet is often called, was the goal of nearly every powerful inner faction. The reason for this was to both control the center of government as well as to control the massive Star Forge. This goal led to a series of coups and multiple emperors further destabilizing Rakatan power. Finally, the primary reason that the Rakata vanished from memory is because they were infected with a mysterious virus that caused them to lose their sensitivity to the Force. Rakatan technology was dependant entirely upon its wielders ability to use the Force. Without the Force, the Rakata lost control of their own technology and reverted to primitivism.

As mentioned earlier, the Rakata were fragmented from a series of civil wars. The exact conflicts are too numerous to go into exact detail, so it would be more beneficial to just trace their effects. By about 25,000 BBY, the Infinite Empire had no stable government. Rakata Prime was engulfed in a perpetual civil war and the outer systems were for the most part autonomous. Around this time, Coruscant, which had always been a fringe planet in the Infinite Empire, began to expel the invaders from the Core. Additionally, revolts sprang up all across the galaxy, such as on Manaan, Eshan, and Seoul.

A note on Coruscant in relation to the Infinite Empire:

After being devastated by the Celestials during the War in Heaven (circa. 100,000 BBY), Coruscant was rendered an inhospitable waste. It likely would have remained that way and humanity would have died out had it not been for the intervention of the Gree, a former Celestial slave species, somewhere between 90,000 and 75,000 BBY. The Gree built massive structures upon Coruscant called 'Urban Monads' using their advanced technology. These Monads were large buildings which contained their own self-contained ecosystem. From the ones that still remain, archaeologists were able to discover a great deal of what life was like on early Coruscant.

The Urban Monads were built out of mostly permacrete and had molecularly bonded foundations. They were powered by long lasting fusion generators, some of which are believed to still run. These Monads were originally built to house the human species so that they would not go extinct. They were fully autonomous, containing massive underground plantations that filtered out chemicals from the noxious Coruscant atmosphere to turn into water and nutrients to be used in agriculture. These plants were grown using artificial lights powered by the fusion generator and tended to by small fleets of robots. The plants grown were high in nutrients and they fed humanity. However, for all the advanced technology left behind, the Gree did not leave any weapons or means to escape Coruscant. It's as if the Gree wanted to preserve humanity without giving them a head start in galactic expansion. Beyond preservation of the species, it is unknown why the Gree did this, as they disappeared soon after and seemed to take no interest in Coruscant after that. Could this be an act of benevolence in an attempt to heal a burned out galaxy? Perhaps the Gree felt a sense of responsibility and wanted to use the Celestials technology for good. Or perhaps they had their own ulterior motive. It is impossible to tell so long after the fact.

In these early years, humanity lived in the gardens in a state of peace. There were so many Monads and they were so large that any survivors who were lucky enough to find them would have enough resources to support many generations of extended family members. Early humans lived in and populated these Monads, and with a steady source of food, early humans were able to devote their resources to the arts and sciences.

However, this state of peace was not to last as the Monads were built to be a temporary home. At an unknown point, the atmosphere began to clear of noxious chemicals and so the automated agriculture of the Monads shut down. The following food shortages caused massive civil wars between clans as they sought to control their dwindling food sources. Eventually the Monads became dead, and humanity moved outward into the surrounding land. Farming was difficult as most of Coruscant's biosphere was still dead, but they managed to survive.

It is at this stage that humanity became nomadic and semi-nomadic. Scholars debate furiously as to what counts as a nomad and what counts as a semi-nomad, but the point is that they moved around a lot following animals and did some farming on the side. However, food was so scarce that the total population never rose to the point of supporting any serious levels of civilization.

It wasn't until circa 28,500 BBY that things changed when the Rakata invaded. At this point, humanity had begun to build a series of small, mostly independent nation states. The Rakata found humanity, but instead of wiping out the species, they made a covenant. The Rakata saw that these early humans had developed to the point of having complex societies which meant that it may be possible to use them as slaves. The Rakata said that they would give humanity the technology needed to travel the stars in exchange for handing over slaves every so often. Now, the Rakata could easily have taken slaves whenever they wanted, but they wanted to stimulate human organization and cultural evolution. By doing this and giving them steadily more advanced technology, the Rakata could grow a vassal state. However, the Rakata did not hand over the hyperdrive as the primitive humans could not operate it anyway, as humans were not naturally force sensitive, and more advanced forms of Rakatan technology required force sensitivity to operate.

This plan worked well. Humanity grew in power, but due to lack of the hyperdrive, they were unable to gain a foothold of galactic territory and threaten the Rakata. However, Coruscant was not much of a vassal state as the Rakata barely visited. By 26,000 BBY, the Rakata almost never appeared. Humanity had grown proud. By the time the Rakata returned, Coruscant declared rebelion. This rebellion was taken up on many other planets throughout the galaxy. The Rakata were too weakened by civil war to put up with these many rebellions, and the Rakatan Empire shrunk drastically.

Now back to the story:

Each faction fought the other and millions if not billions of rakatan warriors, civilians, and slaves perished. With the constant warfare, traditional strategies broke down as wars of attrition were only ended by sudden and violent civil upheaval or coups. The one artifact that could make a difference was the Star Forge.

A note on the Star Forge:

The Star Forge was a massive space station designed to harvest raw material from a nearby star to turn into weapons. The station itself was powered by fusion and hypermatter generators, and it used massive tractor beams to draw raw material up from the star into a type of processing plant. As the plasma was drawn from the star, it cooled to create huge arcs of raw material. This raw material would then be sorted and processed until it was ready to be molded into whatever designs were needed. These designs were stored on the station's computer and the station would then use multi dimensional printing technology to construct weapons atom by atom. The station could produce simple blaster weapons, droids, shields, and even ships.

But this is not the only feature of the Star Forge. The factory, was powered by the dark side, as all advanced Rakatan technology was. The entire construct was a nexus of darkness which slowly corrupted its users. Part of this darkness was built into it simply by virtue of it being constructed by the Rakata, but it was also said to be haunted by the souls of the thousands of slaves who were forced to build it.

Construction on the Star Forge was thought to have begun circa. 30,000 BBY, although this is a very rough estimate and it could be the case that it was built much, much later. The Forge was originally simply a massive shipyard. As the Rakata expanded outward from Rakata Prime, the surface itself was used for agriculture and living space while the ships were constructed in orbit. Eventually, these shipyards were clustered together into one, large orbiting complex. Technology used to harvest material from stars was developed much later. Originally this technology was used on small stations, but eventually a much larger one was constructed as a way to ferry material to the Forge.

This complex of structures was destroyed and rebuilt several times, but eventually it reached a point where instead of simply rebuilding it, the Rakata completely recreated it. This new version of the Forge was constructed using technology recovered from the ancient Kwa and Gree. It is thought that from the Kwa, the Rakata advanced the Forge's force-amplifying power, and from the Gree, the Rakata recovered the technology needed to create objects on an atomic level.

To create this new structure, all that remained of the old was organized and stacked on top of each other. A massive tractor beam was installed around the core. To construct the station on each level, armies of slaves were pressed into service. The Rakata literally worked them to death, and their dying life force was siphoned into the gears and circuits of the factory. The factory grew and grew. It seemed to amplify the feelings of aggression in its builders causing them to be even more brutal.

Upon its final completion sometime around 26,000 BBY, it was immediately put to use to produce vast armadas for the Rakata. It became a symbol of power, and the capital of the Empire was moved to its control center. However, it seemed to corrupt whoever owned it. Emperors would become more aggressive, thinking that they were invincible, only to find themselves stabbed in the back by a lieutenant. As the wars raged, every faction wanted the Forge. As a result, nobody dared to launch a direct attack on it for fear of destroying it. Instead they usually took it in more subtle or quick ways. When battles raged around it, each navy sought to conquer Rakata Prime for that a blockade could be installed around the station. The factory was like an animal. It fed upon the dark side of its owners until their deaths nourished it. Then it switched hands and it slowly drove the Rakatan kings that had conquered it insane until it was time to feed again.

Occasionally, the factory was damaged, but it was always built back even stronger than before. Through the many conflicts, its warships were produced, spreading its dark influence. This cycle continued until the Rakata were finally overthrown. Upon the death of their empire, the factory went dormant, waiting for the next warlord to start up its engines and wreak havoc upon the galaxy.


	21. Ch 21: The Fall of the Rakata pt2

The Fall of the Rakata Pt.2

The final reason for the Infinite Empire's fall was a series of viruses and their carries which eventually came to be known as the Force Plagues. The exact details on how the plagues worked and spread remains obscure, but recent scholarship into the Sith biological experiments of Darth Tenebrous and Terrak Morrhage reveal some insight. These plagues were thought to have originated from the Tython system. Specifically, they were thought to have been created by the ancient Je'daii order as a way of defending against their Rakatan invaders.

A Note on the Tython System:

Tython was an ancient and mysterious planet. Before the Je'daii had founded their Order (circa. 36,400 BBY), the planet was ruled by a host of ancient species. The planet was thought to have been inhabited by the Celestials at some point in the past, although the exact dates are unknown.

Many historians suspect that before the War in Heaven, the Celestials heald Tython as just another planet in their empire. Many suspect that the Celestials actually built the planetary system using their powerful Cosmic Turbines. Evidence for this is the fact that the conditions of life appear to be perfect on each planet in the Tython system. Most planets are located unnaturally close together in the habitable zone of the star Tythos.

The planet (or dwarf planet if the IUA has anything to say about it) Sunspot, while not habitable, has a thin atmosphere that made it possible to set up a small mining colony in the days of the Je'daii Order. It is very rare for planets this close to their star and their other neighbors to have any sort of atmosphere. Additionally, Sunspot appears to have been a rogue planetoid that had been somehow captured by the gravity of the star Tythos.

The second planet, Malterra, is also small and hot, but with a thin atmosphere. Strangely, Sunspot and Malterra orbit so close together that their gravitational wells strongly affect each other. It is highly unlikely that the precision necessary for this formation is natural, as their orbits appear to be too perfectly calculated.

The third planet, Nox, is close to Tythos as well, but it has an incredibly dense atmosphere. Under most natural conditions, this would cause a runaway greenhouse effect rendering Nox uninhabitable. However, Nox's atmosphere has an incredibly high albedo rendering the surface cool. Additionally, the constant cloud cover causes rain to be almost constant on the planet, rendering it possible for life to grow.

Krev Coeur, the fourth planet, has an atmosphere with normal density. Its close proximity to Tythos means that it is still very hot and inhospitable. However, strange life forms are able to dwell in complex underground cave networks. Underground plants can use both chemosynthesis and photosynthesis to support large ecosystems.

Tython is the fifth planet from the star Tythos. It is habitable and has a climate much like that of Corellia, except a little hotter on average. The most unusual thing about Tython is that it is incredibly strong in the Force. This latent power cannot be tapped into directly, but it has an interesting effect upon the native flora and fauna. Additionally, it was considered dangerous for non Force sensitives to live on Tython as they could be harmed by the planets violent outpourings of energy.

Kalimahr is the sixth planet, but its actual distance from Tythos makes it as habitable as an average third or so planet. It orbits close to Tython, but it orbits in such a way that the two planets gravity wells very rarely affect each other. Stranger still, Tython has two moons and Kalimahr has three. Just one moon is unusual for a rocky planet, but so many in such close proximity is practically unheard of.

Shikaakwa is the seventh planet. It has a thick atmosphere and massive oceans that trap heat and regulate temperature. Ska Gora is the eighth planet. It has an unusually dense atmosphere that contains a very high percentage of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide traps heat causing the outer planet to be warm. Additionally, the thick atmosphere causes the native trees to grow to massive heights. All eight of these inner planets are rocky, a virtually unheard of phenomena. Additionally, their ability to support life cannot be a coincidence.

There is one more rocky planetoid located at the edge of the system called Furies Gate. It is frigid and lifeless. Between Furies Gate and Ska Gora are two large gas giants. This part of the system is less unusual, but it is still strange that there are only two and not far more gas giants.

The Je'daii and Rakatan Invasion:

The saga of the Je'daii order is another story that is too long to tell, but it's ending can be summarized. The Order used the light and the dark sides of the Force in balance. They viewed the dark side, or Bogan, as the embodiment of power but no control. Similarly, they viewed the light side, or the Ashla, as controlled but passive. They believed that powers were neither good nor evil, but good or evil came from how they were used. Similarly, asceticism and hedonism are both stupid ways of life as one should strive to live a life of discipline and virtue instead.

However, this outlook has been criticized heavily by the Jedi who saw it as a weak and promiscuous version of Jedi morality while its adherents are one step away from becoming insane from the dark side. This debate has been taken up again in recent years between the more liberal older generation of Jedi who believe that a Jedi should serve the Force in its entirety versus the more strict younger generation who see the dark side as a dangerous cancer in the Force and so to serve the Force, one should eliminate it. The older generation values freedom while the younger sees themselves as reforming an order of hippie grey Jedi. However, with the rebuilding of the Order in the aftermath of Darth Krayt's purges, the Jedi reformers have taken the upper hand as they completely shun the dark side. Whichever side is right at the end of the day and which is responsible for the atrocities of the Sith is irrelevant, as the important thing is that they learn from history. The point of this accolade is to show both how intertwined the Jedi and Sith and by extension the light and dark sides of the Force are, and to demonstrate that the cycle of reformation, stagnation, and tragedy is a continuous.

The Force Wars were one of the reasons why staunch Jedi Orthodoxy got going in the first place. The wars began with the Rakatan invasion of the Tython system circa. 25,793 BBY. When the Rakata invaded, their presence caused a series of weather anomalies to rip across the planet Tython. The Je'daii were able to repel the invaders, but the effect of their presence triggered a debate on the use and limits of certain dark side powers.

There was already a brewing conflict long before the Rakatan invasion, but their presence was the catalyst that turned debates into open conflict. The Followers of Bogan sought to withdraw from the Order. Meanwhile, the Je'daii Orthodoxy saw them as dangerous heretics. They moved to arrest the Followers of Bogan and war broke out. However, a faction was growing within the Je'daii that led to another group schisiming with the Orthodoxy. This group saw the Followers of Bogan as the dangerous but logical conclusion of the flawed teachings of the Je'daii Order. This group called themselves the Jedi Order, a name which means 'purified' or 'true Je'daii' as they were devoted to the light side only. An observant reader should note the obvious and frightening parallels to the Celestial War in Heaven.

The war raged between the Je'daii and the Followers of Bogan. However, the Je'daii saw the Jedi as heretics as well. This led to the Je'daii fighting a two front war and they were annihilated. Many of the survivors fell to the dark side and were taken in by the Followers of Bogan. However, most survivors chose to side with the Jedi believing that they were right all along after seeing the collapse of the Je'daii Order, although of course many survivors did not see it this way as they only sided with the Jedi because they saw the Jedi as the lesser of two heresies. The Followers of Bogan and the Jedi went to war in the first true clash of light and dark in ages. In the end, the Jedi had superior numbers, teamwork, and experience and so the Followers of Bogan were decimated.

However, a small band of Followers survived, but the Jedi were unable to hunt them down as the Rakata descended for a second invasion circa. 25,783 BBY. The Jedi fought the invaders, but in the end it was a hopeless fight. The Rakata left the Tython system as a series of burned out husks orbiting the star Tythos. However, this victory would be like swallowing a parasite for the Rakata as when they left, they took with them the Force Plague.

The Followers of Bogan were able to board massive generation ships and escape to the distant planet Ossus, a trek that took almost a century. The Jedi remained behind on Tython, but it was clear that there was no use surviving in their hellish post-apocalyptic land and so they evacuated to Ossus as well. When they arrived, the two groups again went to war, but that's the story for another day.

The Force Plague:

When it became clear that the Followers of Bogan were losing, they devised a plan to create a secret weapon. This weapon would be a virus that was supposed to strip its victims of the Force. It was the culmination of thousands of years of Je'daii alchemical, biological, and midichlorian research. It took years to take its final form, but even then, it had a major problem. The virus, when infecting its victims, could not sever powerful Jedi from the Force. It only worked on incredibly weak individuals, which rendered it moot as weak individuals could not use the Force anyway. Another defect was that the prototype virus was unable to mutate across species.

When the Rakata invaded, the Followers recognised the futility of unleashing it against the Jedi, especially since the Jedi were fighting to prevent everyone's extinction. In desperation, the Followers engineered the virus to infect the Rakata. The Rakata left, and this slow-acting virus was able to spread across the Infinite Empire without hindrance.

The virus worked by mutating midichlorians into 'maxi-chlorians.' Maxi-chlorians are a strange mutation that appears as a large, bloated midichlorian. Strangely, they do not allow their host access to the Force as they seem to close themselves off from the flow of life energy between the host and the midichlorian. If all or most midichlorians turn into maxi-chlorians, the target is effectively severed from the Force.

The virus did not infect the Rakata directly, as their midichlorians were able to become infected, but were powerful enough to recover. However, when a Rakata female would conceive, the embryo would not have this privileged protection. Since the virus was already in the female's body, it would migrate to the embryo and turn all its developing midichlorians into maxi-chlorians. Within a few generations, most Rakatan children born could not feel the Force. This, combined with the massive death tolls suffered by the Rakatan warrior caste led the the collapse of the empire.

As the virus's effects became apparent, the Rakata slowly lost the ability to wield their technology. Every level of the once-great empire disintegrated. Any Rakata left were forced to adapt. Most became primitives. A few were able to redesign their technology and flee to the unknown regions, but these small confederations that formed were unable to ever return the glory of the Infinite Empire. All that was left of their once mighty civilization were their many works of engineering such as the Star Forge.


	22. Ch 22: The War of Darkness pt1

The War of Darkness pt.1

The War of Darkness was the conflict that gave name to the entire Hundred Year Darkness. The actual origin of the war's name is unknown, but according to legend, on the day of the first battle, the Jedi Uro Koo was reported to have said that he felt a great and overpowering darkness rising.

The war began in 6910 BBY when Pall's forces, led by Dreypa, attacked the fragile Republic using ships and war droids obtained from the newly discovered Star Forge. Soon after the war began, Pall's forces were named the 'Black Legions' by the Republic, a name which the Dark Jedi soon took up. The name came from, first and foremost, the color of their unknown ships, but also because of their armor colors. In fact, all throughout the ranks, black was the new orange when it came to armor color. Another possible reason that the name caught on was because of the Jedi labeling them as followers of the dark side. This army did not spring up overnight, but had been gathering strength for over a year in advance.

The logistics and exact numbers are very up in the air both due to errors as well as historical unreliability in this area, but we can make some hypotheses as to the size of each side as well as each side's advantages. The Star Forge could produce, on average, a three hundred or so cruisers per year. This number could be scaled up or down depending upon what other items were being produced and at what efficiency ratio these items were produced at. Because of this, at the start of the war Pall had just over five hundred cruisers in the Black Legions.

Now, even in the Republic's weakened state, this number is laughably small. Many historians estimate that the Republic Navy outnumbered the Black Legions fleet somewhere in the range of fifty to one. However, there were several reasons why the Legions still stood a chance.

Pall's Legacy:

The main reason why the Black Legions were able to gain momentum was because Pall utilized what came to be known as the 'Star Forge Strategy' by later historians. This strategy was called such due to its almost identical execution and success by the fallen Jedi Darth Revan almost three thousand years later. In fact, it was the almost identical execution that caused later historians to note the massive similarities between Revan and Pall, and these connections will be touched on later.

The reasons that these connections exist is because while Pall did not leave behind any surviving holocrons, he was still a prolific writer who left behind a massive cache of work. His magnum opus was a twelve hundred page book titled _The Ethics of War,_ but he also left behind hundreds of papers, dozens of journals, numerous commentary on famous works of Jedi philosophy, and even a romance novel about two padawans falling in love titled _Across the Stars_ (which is still a good read seven thousand years later).

This massive cache of work was discovered on Corbos roughly two hundred years after Pall's death. While it was an important archaeological find in it's day, a variety of reasons ensured that Pall's work was suppressed and subsequently pigeonholed. First of all, the Jedi Inquisition was the first organization to recover the information and as they were trying to suppress all memory of the Hundred Year Darkness, the manuscripts were never published at first and almost destroyed. Following this, they were kept under lock and key for the next nine hundred years until the Jedi Order finally decided to recover information from the ancient and long forgotten inquisitor safehouses. The manuscripts were then placed in the Jedi archives storage section right next to Remulus Dreypa's tax returns and who knows what else. They remained in this state for the next three hundred years. It was only much later that someone decided to go through all these old manuscripts.

Much of Pall's work was finally published circa. 5,500 BBY, and by then he was a distant memory. Nobody except the occasional historian on the Hundred Year Darkness actually cared that his work was published, least of all the Jedi. However, it was not just age that prevented people from deciphering his thought. First of all, there was the massive bulk of it. When it was published, only the most expensive and thorough libraries bought a copy due to its sheer size, and the works were rarely if ever reprinted for anybody. Second, the manuscripts were never meant to be published. As a result, they are all over the place in their contents and subject matter. Even _The Ethics of War_ has this issue. Finally, when people saw that one of the most terrifying ancient Dark Jedi had also written a romance novel, they laughed and considered Pall to be some crazy old kook unworthy of serious scholarly consideration.

It is really quite a shame considering that in Pall's notebooks and journals, he lays out explicit instructions on what the Star Forge is, how to find it, what it can do, and how to take over the Galaxy with it. In fact, it seems that the only person who read Pall's work with any attention to detail at all was Revan. Yet another reason why we need to learn from history, not ignore it.

 _The Ethics of War_ :

As mentioned before, _The Ethics of War_ is Pall's twelve hundred page magnum opus written mainly in aphorism and anecdotal form rendering it obscure unless one knows exactly what to look for. Three hundred pages are devoted to a choppy narrative of specific points in Pall's life. The next seven hundred pages are devoted to a massive philosophical work addressing almost every ethical, metaphysical, and epistemological question out there, oddly enough, without building a complete system. Only a hundred pages are devoted to warfare as they are mostly built upon the philosophical observations that came before, and the final hundred pages are other random tales and observations only vaguely on topic. The _Ethics_ do not contain much information on the Star Forge, but treat the matter of war and strategy in very general terms.

The Star Forge Strategy:

The Republic has numbers on its side. In addition, it was huge and had the industrial and population advantages. However, the conditions into which Pall was born into could not have been more perfect for the strategy to work. After a series of gruesome civil wars, the Republic's fleet was drastically reduced in size and in a constant state of disrepair. The Republic could not simply recover by taking advantage of its workforce and size due to a series of economic slumps caused by collateral damage and shifting corporate alliances during the war.

People were tired of the Republic and its problems. There was very little patriotic energy. Companies couldn't invest and jump start the economy as the shifting political alliances made any investment risky, and the Senate could not pass legislation to solve these problems as the only measures that would be successful required a strong military to protect assets. Without the economy, there was no capable military; without the military, there was no stability, and without any stability, the economy could not recover. Additionally, the Republic was huge. It's military was stretched thin across its territory, and this military constantly faced threats from the frontier as well as from rebellions.

The Black Legions' strategy was to rely on the Star Forge. While the Forge produced resources at a relatively slow rate, its advantage lay not in its rate of production, but the fact that anything produced was almost completely _free_. While the Republic struggled to crank out ships due to costs, the Legions could roll them out for next to nothing. At first, the Legions even sold some of their warships to get money to hire a mercenary army. The second advantage came with the fact that the Star Forge was in the middle of the unknown regions. A twisted maze of hyperlanes protected the location of Rakata Prime so it could serve as a secret command base. A third advantage was recruitment. The lack of patriotism made few eager to sign up for the Republic military. Meanwhile, due to monetary resources from Dreypa, XoXaan, and the warship sale, the Legions could hire mercenaries who worked for cheap thanks to the economic hardship. Finally, and perhaps their biggest advantage in the conventional sense, was that the Legions, at first, had no state. They were just a rogue fleet striking from the unknown regions.

However, the Legions had one terrifyingly effective _unconventional_ advantage. A technological advantage. Primarily, the Legions had access to blaster and shield technology.

A History of the Blaster:

Everyone knows what a blaster is. In fact, it's almost impossible to imagine warfare without them. In reality, for much of the Galaxy's history, blasters didn't exist and soldiers would have to fight with projectile weapons. However, these projectile weapons, for one reason or another, were gradually displaced when blasters came about.

The earliest use of blaster-like technology not including the technology of the Rakata, was used in the Tython system. In the later days of the Je'daii, a peculiar weapon known as a powder-blaster was invented. These weapons took a gas similar to tibanna which was mined on the gas giants Orbi and Mawr, compressed this gas into canisters, and uses this gas as ammunition for plasma weapons, much like the modern blaster. However, the similarities end here. Powder-blasters had more in common with traditional projectile firearms, which they are descended from, than with modern blaster pistols.

The powder-blaster has a chamber with bullet-like cartridges. In each cartridge, was a small pinch of a special 'powder' which would fuse with the gas under the influence of an electric current, was stored. When the gas and the powder united, plasma would be created, and the 'head' of the cartridge would be ejected at a high velocity surrounded by a cocoon of plasma. This plasma bolt was very similar to the plasma bolts fired by a wookiee bowcaster in that it consisted of a solid projectile surrounded by plasma.

These weapons had the advantage of being able to pierce enemy armor that would normally stop a solid high-velocity projectile. However, they often took even longer to reload than said firearms and had bad range and accuracy. As a result, many still considered it more effective to use rapid fire projectile weapons.

Another ancestor of the blaster was the beam-tube. These weapons consisted of a massive tube connected to a power source. The tube would generate a beam of high energy particles which would be fired at the enemy. These tubes were extremely powerful, even by today's standards, and could pierce projectile resistant armor like tissue paper, but they were large and unwieldy. These weapons were often used as heavy support from 25,000-8,000 BBY.

However, during these years, the primary weapons of most soldiers was a rapid-fire high velocity projectile launcher. In these years, each side would build strategies to be more and more resistant to these projectiles. New armors and power suits were developed as an arms race in armor overcame every side. However, there was no steady technological development. Armies from different time periods were a sabacc game of different combinations. Some soldiers wore massive suits that could barely be moved, others wore lighter and faster armor. Some wore expensive powersuits, other wore pads only covering vital parts. The one pattern was that armor evolved to counter projectiles, not plasma.

Beam-tubes were replaced by pulse-wave blasters mostly after the Waymancy Storm of 7811 BBY. Pulse-wave blasters were the closest of the early blasters to the modern blaster as they operated in much the same way. However, they wasted most of their energy in an expanding cone of charged particles that spread out with the central bolt. This cone was powerful enough to vaporize some targets, but it had terrible range. Plus, the central bolt, while it could fly farther, had terrible range. Pulse- wave blasters existed long before the Waymancy Storm, but they were very expensive. Their main advantage was that they could pierce most armor like tissue paper without being as bulky as a beam-tube. It was only after the Republic reverse engineered the Sif-Alulan process in the aftermath of the Waymancy Storm that pulse-wave weapons became cheap and easy to make. As a result, they began to take the job of projectile weapons. However, the expanding cone of particles was still a massive waste of energy.

One method to get around this was the 'triple blaster, developed not too long after the Waymancy Storm. They had a device that could channel the energy that would be projected in the beam's cone back into two auxiliary blasters. This charged particle exhaust would then be fed more gas and the entier weapon would fire three bolts at once without any dangerous cone. The benefit was efficiency and volume fired. The drawback was terrible accuracy.

The actual blaster proper was developed in the aftermath of the Hundred Year Darkness. This technology is able to use short bursts of energy and a focusing emitter to create a single, precise, energetic bolt without any wasted cone. This technology was originally used by the Black Legions exclusively, until the Republic was able to reverse engineer it. These weapons originate from the Star Forge. The Rakata had designed and built the technology long ago, but with the fall of their empire it was lost. When Pall discovered the Star Forge, he reintroduced it to the Galaxy at large.

After the war, these weapons were so effective that they eventually replaced most standard projectile weapons, although for a while pulse-waves and triple blasters were still used alongside the new blaster. They became so effective that the Jedi Order was almost hunted to extinction until they were able to develop what would come to be known as the Soresu form of lightsaber combat, a fighting style specifically designed for blaster bolt defense.


	23. Ch 23: The War of Darkness pt2

The War of Darkness pt. 2

The War of Darkness can be divided into four main stages. The first stage was the stage of feints, also known as the preliminary stage, which lasted for a year and a half. Following this, was the alignment stage which lasted for two and a half years. Next came the warring states stage, which lasted for four years. Finally, came the fragmentation stage which lasted for the remaining two years. The actual specifics of the war cannot be elaborated on in great detail simply due to the sheer length and span of the war, but each period can be elaborated upon to an extent.

The Preliminary Stage:

In the preliminary stage, the strategic brilliance of the Star Forge Strategy was especially highlighted. Since several of the original Jedi conspirators were wealthy, their money could be used to secure black market trading deals. Star Forge ships were sold to the highest underground bidder for massive sums. These bidders were often small, despotic outer rim nation states were constantly warring with each other and a sleek, technologically advanced warship could go a long way in their petty conflicts.

However, Pall did not authorize the distribution, or even production of blaster technology. He did not want to risk it falling into the hands of the Republic. Instead, he relied upon the traditional triple blaster, pulse wave pistol, and the occasional projectile firearm. With the money gained by the warship sale, he hired scores of mercenaries. These mercenaries were often young men who had lost their families and now had nothing. Pall wanted them primarily for they would have no home attachments to worry about, thereby allowing them to spend months or years in service. The Dark Jedi needed things to be this way to ensure their project's secrecy.

In 6910 BBY, the feingts began in earnest. Pall did not personally participate in any of these early battles, but he did assist them by peering into the future to come up with perfect strategies and modes of attack. Before the first series of strikes began, Pall was known to have meditated without food for up to a week in the central chamber of the Star Forge. He writes that during that time he saw the Force throughout the galaxy as if it were a massive crystal lattice. He pushed and probed this lattice, looking for fault lines. He described the Jedi as being a series of dim lights mixed in with the crystal of all living things. The Jedi were like sand-sized diamonds on a beach, but each grain was linked to each other. He sought to strike this crystal lattice in such a way as to destroy these small grains of light while keeping the overall structure intact. Pall did not want to cause an unnecessary loss of life, and he wanted to keep the Republic somewhat stable, but he wished to simply remove the Jedi and to take over and shape the Republic as he saw fit. He was still haunted by the specter of a dead galaxy, and he wanted to prevent this reality from coming to pass. This overall end goal shifted with each stage of the war, but it was highly idealistic in the beginning. He saw the weakness of the Republic and thought that the war would be over in less than four years- obviously a generous estimate.

The first strikes were bold attacks against the world of Kuat in the First Battle of Kuat. It was thought that Kuat was impenetrable because of the fact that all hyperspace routes leading to it stopped at other further out planets. However, Pall was able to use his ability to see the shatterpoints in space to navigate a new path to Kuat- a more advanced demonstration of common Jedi navigation technique. Dreypa then used his vast mental powers to project battle meditation over the fleet thereby coordinating the attack and disorganized the defense. The result of the battle was that a large portion of the Kuat shipyards was destroyed. While under normal circumstances this would trigger a sharp backlash and increase in production, the Republic simply could not afford to mass produce ships and repair the shipyards. It did, however, spurr the Republic into action.

The Black Fleet then retreated to the unknown regions. Over the next year, more and more strikes were launched in this guerrilla-style. The Republic, while crippled, was able to rise to the challenge, which is exactly what Pall wanted. The Republic could not spring into action right away, but these attacks provoked an increased economic drive to produce more, mainly war supplies. However, it is important to remember that the Black Fleet was just one of many rouge fleets and systems attacking Republic worlds. Others were mainly conflicts between sectors due to rival warlord factions. However, the Black Fleet was infamous as one of the most powerful and mysterious of forces.

The Dark Jedi took advantage of this. Their reputation for battle meditation caused Dark Jedi groups to seek them out. Most were rejected, and many were killed, Pall considered them to be too far gone and a liability, but others were recruited to join the ranks of Dark Jedi. The planet Korriban, and other worlds with Star Maps, were off limits, as Pall was sure to erase their existence from the records, but other Sith worlds became training grounds for hopefuls. Another effect was that smaller systems were quick to make alliances of protection with the Black Fleet. Towards the end of the preliminary stage, these alliances built up and became sizeable states.

Sith Synthesis:

Most of the Dark Jedi-Sith synthesis occured before the end of the Hundred Year Darkness. Pall believed that the entire conflict was a farse, or rather an effect. He saw the real conflict as not a clash of warships but a clash of the Force. To him, everything else was secondary. This was especially true towards the end of the war as Pall became more and more detached from the physical world, being only invested in the Force itself. Since this was a war of the Force, he made sure that every effort was taken to understand it.

The Dark Jedi had access to ancient Sith worlds such as Tund and Malachor. It was on these worlds that Pall as well as other Dark Jedi such as Syn, Hord, and Broodica began work on translating ancient Sith texts and distributing them to hopefuls for instruction purposes. The idea was to utilize these texts to gain an edge over the Jedi. After all, the preexisting dark side cults that the Dark Jedi were taking in derived most of their teachings from corrupted forms of Jedi experiments in the dark side. The Sith on the other hand were true masters.

In the early days, hopefuls were mainly used for translation purposes. They were taught the basics of the language and allowed to discover for themselves the meanings of the texts. However, due to infighting, as the war went on and the Dark Jedi in charge became more knowledgeable about the source material, this process was streamlined and made a common curriculum. This continued throughout the war.

The Alignment Stage:

When the Black Legions alliances built up, they switched from guerilla tactics to a more traditional style of warfare. The reason for this switch was because while guerrilla tactics worked fine to weaken the Republic, it would get nowhere on its own as the Black Fleet was too small to take Coruscant and Alsakan, and over time the Republic would recover and root out the Legions. Another factor for the change in tactics was the presence of the Jedi. The Dark Jedi did not want the Jedi to find the location of the Star Forge or any of their teaching centers, and so to safeguard them, it was necessary to create a bulky confederation. This may seem like an extravagant means to protect something as trivial as a Sith academy, but Pall increasingly believed that the physical world was irrelevant and only a means to the end of the Force and the world of ideas. Worlds like Malachor contained thousands of years of teachings and knowledge about the Force, this information was too valuable to allow to fall into the enemy hands.

As the war drove on, the Dark Jedi took world after world. The confederacy created around the Black Fleet as a lynchpin allowed the war to be fought on more or less equal fronts. It is somewhat of an enigma as to how these allies saw the war. On the one hand, smaller nations joined for the purpose of having a strong neighbor for protection, and other, more medium sized nations joined to avoid conflict. It is thought that Pall and the Dark Jedi also used an increasing amount of mind tricks to persuade them into joining. Therefore, even though they were at war, the Black Legions continued to act as a grain of dust around which a hailstone of war formed. In this stage, the two most important battles were the battles of Ossus and Coruscant. Another important event was the exile of Tulak Hord. All three events will be discussed in the next chapter.


	24. Ch 24: Dark Jedi and Hyperspace

Dark Jedi and Hyperspace

The Battle of Ossus occured in 6,908 BBY. It was a major victory of the Dark Jedi against the Jedi, and at the time it was believed that Pall had already won the war. After all, Pall saw the real war as a clash between the Force, and so he believed that once the Jedi were taken out he would already have won, or at least he believed that victory on all fronts would soon be within reach. However, the actual significance of the battle requires some lead up.

The Followers of Bogan:

Sometime after 25,680 BBY, the Followers of Bogan set up an order on the planet Ossus. The Followers had lost the war with the early Jedi on the planet Tython and were driven off. Ossus was not the only planet that they founded. Indeed, when they left Tython, they did so in several stasis ships which were programed to seek and land on any habitable planet they could find. Due to the vastness of space and the difficulty of navigating, these ships landed all across the Core and Rim. These small pockets of dark side users became seeds for early enemies of the Jedi who continued the war between light and dark long after the First Great Schism.

The earliest known colonization attempt of Ossus by a Force-using organization was by the ancient Je'daii Order. The Je'daii did not have access to hyperdrives as we know them, instead, they would often use 'dimensional drives.'

A Short History of the Hyperdrive pt. 1:

Circa. 34,500 BBY the Drall scientist Trian developed the Theory of Universal Reference. This famous theorem formulated (E=MC^2) states that the speed of light is an absolute barrier. This also led to the strange result that matter and energy are now known to be two sides of the same credit rather than two completely different substances. Unfortunately for Trian and the entire ancient Corellian system, this theorem was later used to construct massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons. These weapons were heavily used when the three species in the ancient Corellian system, Humans, Drall, and Selonians, went to war in an event that came to be known as the Three-Body War. (circa. 33,000-32,900 BBY) In the aftermath of the war, the ancient Corellian system became a nuclear waste which didn't recover until circa. 30,000 BBY, not long before the Rakata invaded circa. 29,500 BBY. It seems that due to sentient nature, life can never catch a break.

However, when Trian was formulating this theory, he was working under a few assumptions and false paradigms, primarily, he assumed a deterministic, classical, and Force-deaf universe that existed in only four dimensions. The way to get around Trian's barrier is not to go faster than the speed of light in realspace, but to shift into hyperspace. In hyperspace, one can 'bypass' certain areas of space in order to not violate this barrier. This technology became known to galactic civilization at large following the fall of the Rakata, but it has existed, at least in some form, as long as civilization has spanned across the stars.

One of the earliest known technologies that made use of the phenomena of hyperspace was the Hyperspace Nullifier built by the ancient insectoid K'kybak species circa. 2,000,000 BBY. An observant reader may remember that there was a flourishing of galactic civilization long before the Celestials ever came to power, in fact, some think that Celestial technology has some roots in the technology of the K'kybak. The Hyperspace Nullifier can disable hyperspace travel across wide reaches of space, similar to an interdiction field, but much more permanent. It is thought that this technology was developed as a defensive countermeasure which suggests that whatever unknown foe they faced had access to advanced hyperspace technology. One possible identity for this mysterious assailant is the ancient Columi who were known to have used some form of hyperspace technology to travel across the galaxy around two million years ago. Perhaps this weapon was used to seal off the Columus and the surrounding systems thereby creating the hyperspace anomalies experienced today.

Another instance of ancient hyperspace technology comes from the Sharu. The Sharu lived in the Rafa system which is located next to the Oseon system. The new discoveries in the Oseon system hint that it was the location of an ancient interstellar battle. Many historians and astro-geologists believe that the Oseon system, which is today filled with only asteroids, was once held planets. It is unknown what ancient force was powerful enough to destroy these planets. However, it is believed that the planetary destruction of the Oseon system caused a hyperspace disturbance that sealed off the Rafa system from the rest of the galaxy. This hyperspace disruption was thought to have existed from 2,000,000 BBY-100,000 BBY. Within it, the ancient Sharu were believed to have been trapped. As the millions of years wore on, their technology advanced almost beyond recognition, that is to say that they are believed to be the only species worthy of being placed at 'Tier 0' on a standard Obroa-Skai Technological Advancement Scale, and yet they still could not escape. To get around this disruption, the Sharu constructed space-warping technology that eventually paved the way for the Celestial Hyperspace Tractor Beam, the Gree Hypergate, the Kwa Infinity Gate, and the Rakatan Teleporter. However, the Sharu may have played a part in eliminating the barrier as remains of the ancient Sharu civilization have been found on Tund and Aargau.

Perhaps the most interesting of all ancient hyperspace incidents is the story of the Force-sensitive Tempestro, who also lived circa. 2,000,000 BBY. Now, the Tempestro, as a species, were not very technologically advanced. In fact, they seemed to pride themselves on being primitive. However, they were known to have traveled the ancient galaxy far and wide, serving as prophets of the Force. It is thought that they hitchhiked on the ships of other species, again possibly the Columi, and used their insight to start religious movements. This shows that hyperspace technology was indeed common, or at least usable in the early galaxy.

In fact, it is believed that the Tempestro were able to convince a large population of the otherwise violent K'kybak to abandon their warlike ways and embrace a life of contemplation and peace. This population eventually evolved into the Tritonite species, and the teachings of the Tempestro are believed to be preserved in the legends of a mythical prophet named Gactimus. Another recent find links the Tempestro to the planet of Kriekaal. Over a century ago, an ancient half-melted ship, over a million years old, was found submerged in a metalic lake. This find, one of the most well preserved from the time, has been invaluable to researchers, and indeed the ship appears to have a rudimentary hyperdrive. The native Krieks have a legend about an ancient alien shaman named Ssiskor who annoyed the goddess Br'lai and provoked her to cause the metallic oceans to swallow up the alien invaders. It is doubtful that this story accurately preserves any information from two million years ago, but Force-sensitive Krieks are known to have had visions of similar symbolic showdowns. It is by investigating these legends and artefacts that historians and xenoarcheologists were able to link the Tempestro to the Temples of Kooroo found on multiple planets throughout the galaxy.

The Temples of Kooroo were originally shrouded in even greater mystery than they are now until they were linked to the Tempestro. There has been much controversy over the origin of these temples, but it is believed that they were also built around two million years ago by an unknown species known as the Kooroo. It is likely that the Kooroo were in fact the Tempestro, or at least allied with them, as these temples are reported by the Jedi to be focusing points of the Force. It was discovered that these temples used to house massive subspace communication arrays, likely also used by either the Tempestro or other visitors. Further investigations have revealed a broken array of hyperspace portals, very similar in design to Gree hypergates and Kwa infinity gates, in the hearts of the temples. However, it is likely that these were added much later during the days of the Celestials, specifically by the Whills, although this, as well as later hyperdrive advances by ancient species will be elaborated on in a later chapter. However, while this may sound like something of a tangential digression, it is important information in the chapters to come. The reason that ancient hyperdrive technology should be pointed out is to illustrate that the Rakata were not the first to use it.

Before the widespread adoption of reverse-engineered Rakatan hyperdrives, dimensional drives were the most common form of faster than light travel. They were invented independently on many planets, but most discoveries link them to the invention of the subspace ansible. For example, in the ancient Corellian system after the time of Trian, tachyons were discovered circa. 34,000 BBY. These particles showed that it was possible for things to exist in a super luminal state. Up to their discovery, it was thought that quarks, leptons, and force carrier particles were the only constituents of matter, however, now tachyons made up a fourth group. However, while tachyons are a form of hypermater, they did not immediately allow for hyperspace travel. Instead, from experimenting with these particles the Universal Hyperspace Constant was developed.

This constant is the speed of information in subspace, sort of like the Light Constant or speed of light in realspace. This constant is 'one' on the standard hyperspace speed scale, that is to say that ships with a class 'one' hyperdrive travel at the constant while ships with a speed greater than one (ex 'two') travel slower and ships with speeds less than one (ex. 'point -five') travel faster than the constant. However, all information sent through a subspace ansible travels at the constant. Using this technology, faster than light communication was developed, and with the discovery of subspace it was not long before dimensional drives were invented thereby allowing users to 'slip through' subspace or 'slipstream space' as it is sometimes called.

Slipstream space is sometimes thought of as a dimension 'between' realspace and hyperspace. However, quantum hyper-physicists inform me that this is just a lie told to children because they do not want to give them the equivalent of fifteen college credit hours worth of education in quantum-hyperdynamic physics in five minutes. Either way one looks at it, slipstream space allows for faster than light travel. (however, really slow dimensional drives actually travel _slower_ than light) The problem with this is that while it is faster than light, the speed of most dimensional drives is nowhere near the speed of the Universal Hyperspace Constant. This can be thought of, again, like the Light Constant. A ship in slipstream space never comes close to the Universal Hyperspace Constant just as a ship in realspace never comes close to the speed of light. Therefore, dimensional drives are perfect for intersystem travel, but terrible at interstellar travel.

Back to the Tython System:

Dimensional drives were widely used in the Tython system. Ancient Je'daii would use them both in system, as well as in exploratory probes sent out from the system. This is how Ossus was found. The Je'daii sent living scouts to Ossus at some point before the destruction of their order, but no lasting settlement was established. When the Followers of Bogan flead the system, they traveled to Ossus as it was said to be strong in the Force. There are reports that when the Followers first colonized Ossus they had to fight pockets of Je'daii warriors who did not want to let the planet fall to them. However, it was no use as they were hopelessly outnumbered. The Followers settled on Ossus and while there they developed an intricate dark-side welding society. Dark powers that were only partially developed under the Je'daii and early Followers were explored and perfected. It is said that they stored knowledge of these findings in a series of caves that became the basement of the Great Library of Ossus.

The Jedi arrived a little over a hundred years later. By then, the Followers were already entrenched in their society, however, they had not yet colonized the entire planet. As a result, the Ossus Force Wars (circa. 25,550-25,450) began. The initial wars lasted for a decade or so, but the lingering conflicts with holdouts dragged on throughout the following century. Eventually, the Followers were but a memory, and the Jedi began to construct the First Great Library of Ossus. However, according to legend the shades of these vanquished dark warriors continued to haunt the grounds. These legends were given some level of credibility with the unexpected fall of a Jedi padawan Cope Shykrill and his murder of several other trainees over four hundred years later.

The texts and records of the ancient Followers were mostly destroyed, but copies of their materials was preserved somewhere in the depths of the great library. These were mostly forgotten about, but Pall writes about how, in his quest to systematize all knowledge on the Force, wished to have access to these texts in addition to the other resources of the library.

The Battle:

The Battle of Ossus was a quick but bloody affair. The Jedi anticipated that the Black Legions would attack another more military target, so the Jedi were caught off guard by the Legions attacking Ossus. Before the battle, Pall had purchased a high-grade military vehicle, disguised it as a simple freighter, and used this to infiltrate Ossus. Pall himself, flanked by Karness Muur and Tulak Hord, led the attack. The disguised warship was driven straight into the Jedi Library and, in a scene foreshadowing Darth Malgus's attack on the Jedi Temple or Darth Vader's execution of Order 66, the Dark Jedi burst out and led an assault on the unprepared Jedi.

Meanwhile, the Black Fleet emerged from hyperspace and blockaded the planet. Within a few hours, the Fleet issued an order demanding the surrender of the Jedi. Many Jedi surrendered and fell to the dark side, but others continued to fight to their last breath.

One of the worst atrocities of the battle was performed by Tulak Hord. Before the battle, Pall gave the order not to attack noncombatants or younglings unless there was no possible way to spare their lives. Hord however, didn't care. He killed every last one of them, and not just the men, but the women, and children too. In his mind, the younglings and noncombatants were brainwashed and therefore useless. He did not see any value in turning them to the dark side as they were often too young, and therefore by the time that they would be finished training the war would be over. He made many other excuses, but Pall believed that he had slaughtered them just to appease his bloodlust, and on this most historians agree. When Pall found out about his actions, he blasted Hord into a coma with a storm of lightning. It was this, and many other actions, that led to Hord's eventual exile.


	25. Ch 25: Dark Jedi and Weirdness

Dark Jedi and Weirdness

After the Battle of Ossus, Pall believed that he had practically won the war. He was almost right. About six months before the battle, the Black Legions began to mass produce blasters and distribute them to their troops. The effect was immediate. The blasters were far more efficient than the pulse-wave blasters that the Republic was forced to rely on, and while blasters were still often outperformed in lethality by rapid fire projectile weapons, there were several factors that contributed to their overall better efficiency.

First of all, blasters cut through kevlar and other projectile-resistant materials like a lightsaber through butter. This rendered most forms of protective armor practically moot. A brigade armed with blasters would easily defeat a brigade armed with rapid fire projectile firearms given that both wore the same protective armor. Remember, up until this point the most effective weapons to get around heavy armor (besides of course explosives) was the tri-blaster and pulse-wave blaster. However, both were unreliable and used up their ammunition quickly. The blaster was more accurate and efficient.

However, the primary reason that blasters helped Pall was because of indirect effects. Not only could blasters be sold to the highest bidder, but when the new technology entered the battlefield previously unallied nation states were quick to side with the Black Legions not only to get their hands on the technology, but also to prevent the technology from being used against them. Now of course, once the blaster was released, everyone began to reverse engineer and mass produce them, including the Republic. However, the initial shock of the blaster caused the Legions to gain several key systems. This, combined with the alliance surge, caused the Legions to gather unstoppable momentum. This momentum was soon bearing down on the Core Worlds.

Even with the string of victories won by the Black Legions, it was thought that Coruscant was impregnable. Coruscant was simply too deep into the Core to launch a hyperspace invasion without taking several more heavily guarded worlds. However, the Republic had not learned from Kuat not to underestimate Pall's tactics and abilities.

Three Dark Jedi leaders went on the expedition. Months before the battle, Pall planned out his attack strategy. He, Dreypa, and Syn sought a way around the Core. After spending days in meditation, Pall believed that he had found a route. The route chosen would cut through the then unknown Koornacht Cluster with the fleet stopping at the planet J't'p'tan, then cut through a maze of densely packed stars to reach the planet Prakith, then cut again through a maze of stars to reach Tython, then finally launch an attack on Coruscant from the jump point of Tython. This route, needless to say, was incredibly hazardous. Most admirals would dismiss the plan outright, but Pall trusted in the Force to show him the way, and these planets were the centers of a shatterpoint faultline that bisected the Core. If it could be pulled off successfully, they could take Coruscant, then carve through the Republic from the inside.

Pall was committed to it, and for months in advance he mapped out the route. He, Dreypa, and Syn were the main ones to scout out the lane in these early days. They landed on J't'p'tan where they made contact with the native Fallanassi sect with whom they tried to form an alliance with.

A Short History of the Fallanassi:

The history of the Fallanassi is mostly unknown as they are a very secretive people. However, historians have been able to construct their origins as well as significant events in the history of their order using what fragments are available.

In the present era, if the Fallanassi are known at all, they are known as a peaceful organization that uses the power of the 'White Current' (a fancy name for an aspect of the Force) to project illusions to hide and avoid conflict. However, they did not always have this peaceful reputation. Indeed, the Fallanassi were one of the many dark side cults that sprang up following the exodus of the Followers of Bogan. One, or perhaps many, ships fleeing the Tython system crash landed on J't'p'tan, and from these survivors sprang up a dark side cult whose members focused on using the power of projecting illusions. These Followers apparently loss access to their technology by unknown means, but many hypothesize that a series of conflicts or engine malfunctions caused their ships to be unusable, and they just didn't repair them. These Followers developed into the Fallanassi.

The Fallanassi developed a primitive hunter-gatherer society. It is believed that their illusion-casting powers intensified at the expense of all others as a survival mechanism. They became devoted to the 'White Current' which they believed to be the source of all their illusion-based power.

A Note on the White Current:

The Force works in mysterious ways. While this is a truism, there are some mysteries that are more well explained than others. The relationship between the Fallanassi's view of the Force and the Jedi's view is one that is still mysterious.

It is known that some people are born with certain aptitudes for learning how to use the Force. For example, some with a particularly high number of certain midichlorians have a greater access to the Unifying Force. This grants them the shatterpoint ability, which is a very advanced form of the standard precognition ability.

Others have a certain aptitude for telepathic-based power, sometimes even exclusively. Most Jedi biologists do not believe that this aptitude is due to midichlorians, rather, most believe that it is due simply to certain structures in the brain. It is believed that those with a greater sensitivity to telepathy are able to learn Sith Sorcery more easily as most sorcery is based around mental manipulation. For example, in surviving notes from the writings of Darth Bane, he states that he believed Darth Zannah to have a greater aptitude for sorcery at the expense of her ability to directly channel the Force in the form of Force Lightning. Usually, there natural aptitudes are minor, much like one's natural aptitude for mathematics or music, but over time they can become truly bizarre. For example, the Iktotchi are, as a species, are not Force sensitive, (note: their average midichlorian count is higher than normal, but not high enough to meet the qualifications of being Force-sensitive) and yet they have natural precognitive and telepathic abilities.

Sometimes Force sensitives are born with strange powers as well. For example, the human Jedi Master Corran Horn was born into a family that had a natural aptitude for telepathic, specifically illusion-based, powers, but he could not use telekinesis to any great extent under most circumstances. Although after his death his brain was unable to be dissected, much to the dismay of some Jedi scientists, his descendants have volunteered to undergo regular brain-scans. These finds strongly hint that his family is born with an extreme form of this natural aptitude for sorcery and illusion.

It is hypothesized that the Fallanassi are the result of this trait evolving in a human population. This would explain why the Fallanassi are so devoted to illusions but seem incapable of using their abilities for telekinesis. The Fallanassi however, do not believe that they are using the Force. Jedi who have studies them report however that they are indeed using the Force, just under a strange appearance. The Jedi believe that due to the Fallanassi Order's unusual powers, they see the Force in a very strange light.

Another ability that hints to this correlation is energy manipulation. Corran Horn and his descendants were able to use the Force to absorb and deflect energy with incredible efficiency. Similarly, the Fallanassi specialize in energy manipulation but only in the form of camouflage, that is to say the bending of light. They are able to use their abilities to create mirages that seem real even to most scanners. A Sith with similar extreme natural aptitudes was Aleema Keto who lived circa. 4000 BBY and who fought in the Great Sith War. (Aleema Keto will be further elaborated on in a future chapter.)

Therefore, most Jedi believe that the White Current is not a separate aspect of the Force in the proper sense, rather it is simply how the Fallanassi see the Force, that is to say, they see the Force this way because they have inherited natural aptitudes that restrict their use of the Force beyond illusions and energy manipulation abilities.

Back to the Fallanassi:

The early history of the Fallanassi is mostly unknown, but records indicate that they do have a strong connection to the Sith. Circa. 12,800 BBY, a small fleet of Sith ships full of refugees somehow managed to navigate out of Sith Space in an attempt to escape the endless warfare of the Hathor Heresy. These Sith eventually made it to Republic space where they pleaded the Republic to take them in and give them a place to live. However, the Jedi were afraid of them and their fierce dark side auras, and so the Jedi persuaded the leaders in charge to drive them away into the Deep Core, or at least that's the official story.

At the time, the Republic was locked in the Fifth Alsakan Conflict. This conflict was not much of a war and more of a period of hostility and stupidity that lasted well over three hundred years. (circa. 13,050-12,700 BBY) Interwoven in this long conflict was the Fourth (13,050-13,000 BBY) and Fifth (12,850-12,700 BBY) Azure Conflicts, a series of rivalries between Anaxes and Coruscant/Alsakan. During this age, the Republic had effectively split into two, and sometimes three, factions (East and West Republic, and sometimes the confusingly named Northwest Republic) who were _technically_ at war, but due to shared economic interests, everyone ignored this war. In fact, most of the Republic's infrastructure and bureaucracy was shared. The East, West, and Northwest Republics were in effect one government with two or three heads that constantly bickered. This, as expected, caused a bureaucratic nightmare that lasted for centuries. Many believe that the Sith were driven away not because they were a perceived threat or due to religious prejudices, but simply because the Jedi believed that the Sith would be hired by one side or another as a Force-sensitive anti-order. And so, to keep things perfectly balanced as all things should be, the Jedi preemptively struck and forced the Sith into the Deep Core where they were never seen or heard from again.

These Sith somehow found the Fallanassi. Perhaps they sensed their connection to the Force and followed. When the Sith arrived, the two groups eventually became one culture which continued to exist in a primitive state for thousands of years. The humans and Sith used alchemical techniques to create human-Sith hybrids, but eventually the Sith bloodline died out as there were so many humans that the Sith genes were too widely dispersed. After a few thousand years, the Fallanassi became more technologically adept through unknown means until they were able to leave J't'p'Tan. However, most chose not to, and technology remained a small part of their lives. The Fallanassi did not come into contact with the Republic at large until thousands of years later circa. 8,000 BBY.

The 'Bedlam Spirits:'

The beings who would come to be known to drunken spacers as the Bedlam Spirits were born Fallanassi adepts sometime before 8,000 BBY. Their names were Tilotny, Cold Danda Sine, Horliss-Horliss, and Splendid Ap. (Attentive readers will notice that they are named after Sith gods, which emphasizes the fusion between the two cultures.) There was a fifth named E'lon M'ust whom we will see in a moment. They were some of the first Fallanassi scouts who came into contact with the Republic. While exploring, they were known to have used their illusion-based powers to become wealthy. This attracted attention to themselves, and they were pursued by the Jedi and teams of bounty hunters.

They were known to have bought top of the line bulletproof white armor as illusions could not stop firearms. Additionally, fearing death, they dove deep into their Sith heritage and any dark side teachings that they could find. The power that they sought was the power to transcend death and inhabit other bodies, but their training was incomplete as a result of the difficulty of their quest and a spacefaring accident. They attempted to travel to the Force-rich world of Bedlam, but they accidentally jumped too close to the infamous Bedlam Pulsar, and their ship was damaged by radiation, which gave each one a lethal dose. E'lon was the most powerful, and as such he overpowered the others and was able to escape in a pod equipped with a dimensional drive, but the others were not so lucky. Their ship crashed on Bedlam where their bodies remain to this day. Ap died in the crash while the other three were able to escape the wreck only to die some time later, likely due to radiation sickness. Archaeologists have uncovered their remains and stories only recently.

However, due to their dark side training, they were able to transcend death in the form of Force ghosts. These vengeful spirits have been driven to madness over the years, and may remain to this day. According to legends, their illusionary power is so great that they can appear to warp reality, trick their victims into believing that they are dead, and even fool people into believing that they traveled back in time to the day when the spirits originally came to Bedlam. These meddlesome spirits were eventually destroyed by a team of Jedi Force-Ghostbusters who annihilated them with the Force Light ability.

E'lon escaped and crash-landed on a nearby, uninhabited planet. The planet's primitive natives venerated him as a god, but he died a short time later. Millenia later when the planet was discovered by the Republic at large, the natives relayed this story to the explorers. The explorers were fascinated and decided to name the planet after the legend, and thus the planet came to be known as M'ust. The primitive natives were then named after their planet, and thus are known as M'usts.

However, E'lon was able to transcend death in the form of a fiery spirit. The native M'usts would often sacrifice their prisoners of war to this fiery god who would drain them of their life force. However, E'lon was in reality gathering energy and looking for a suitable host for that he could complete his ritual and gain a new, stolen body. This finally worked thousands of years later (circa. 3 BBY) when the Jashwik freedom fighter Cody Sunn-Childe, who was naturally very powerful in the Force, was sacrificed. It was then that E'lon attempted his ritual, but he was only partially successful. By then, his memories and consciousness was so eroded and corrupt that it didn't 'download' properly. Instead, Cody inherited his powers and his dark and twisted personality.

Cody later went on to learn to use his illusionary powers for good. He was able to discover an ancient Celestial Monolith (long story) in which he hid until circa. 3 ABY when the Empire found and killed him. However, his journal was recovered which gave historians access to this tale.

Back to the Dark Jedi:

Pall, Syn, and Dreypa arrived on J't'p'tan where they spent months learning from the Fallanassi. They originally wanted to form an alliance with them and bring them into the Black Legions, however this did not work. In fact, things turned violent before the Dark Jedi left. According to Pall's disgusted and snarky commentary, it seems that Dreypa had an affair (to put it mildly) with the high shaman's daughter. The shaman found out, and the entire Fallanassi sect turned against the Dark Jedi ruining any chance of an alliance. Pall writes that he would have killed Dreypa on the spot had it not been for his much-needed battle meditation ability.

After the route between the four planets is secure, Pall gathers his forces. The Black Legions let up on the front line and withdrew a large number of warships. On the surface, it seemed that the Legions could not get past the fortress worlds of the Core and Inner Rim. In reality, they were just letting up on the attack to collect their ships. These chosen ships were transported via little-used hyperspace routes to a rendezvous point. They then, guided by Pall's shatterpoint astronavigation ability, jumped to J't'p'tan. However, things were not well and good. When the first ships emerged in the space around J't'p'tan, the Fallanassi, still pissed, began an attack. Now, the Fallanassi technology was on the whole not very advanced and they did not have many warships. Pall's fleet was forced to fight back. He had originally intended to just disable their vessels and run, but then the rest of the Fleet emerged and saw their flagship engaged in a duel to the death. The rest of the fleet opened fire. The Fallanassi were annihilated.

Pall again contemplated committing suicide by leading the Fleet into a nearby star, but decided that it was too late. He then led the Fleet to Prakith. In the aftermath of the Fallanassi-Black Legions 'War,' surviving Fallanassi reformed their order and became devoted to extreme pacifism. They also developed a passive-aggressive nature towards all members of the male sex.

Pall then led his forces to regroup over Tython, then finally to Coruscant.


	26. Ch 26: The Battle of Coruscant

The Battle of Coruscant

The Battle of Coruscant (circa. 6907 BBY) was perhaps the single greatest military victory for the Black Legions during the war. By the time of the battle, the war had been raging on for almost three years, and the Republic was finally getting its war machine into gear. Leading up to the war, the Republic's economy was in a depression and the military was thinly spread. Additionally, the government received little support from member planets or their citizens, and reforms were constantly being implemented to fix the Republic's numerous problems. This was, as mentioned previously, one of the reasons why the Black Legions were so successful early on.

However, with a clear and present threat, more effort was put into maintaining the military. This created more jobs as sentients enlisted in the armed forces or were hired at newly opened, or in most cases reopened, wartime factories. This was enough to jumpstart the economy, albeit at the cost of an unfathomable amount of credits paid at the Republic's expense. However, most politicians, or at least the ones trying to get the war going, were willing to sacrifice this money in the hopes that the stimulated economy after the war would make up for the deficit. Still, after three years, the Republic was still nowhere near the industrial powerhouse that it once was.

The navy was spread thin. Since the Black Legions were bearing down on the Rim and Core worlds, most ships were moved to the front lines. They patrolled these fortress worlds to prevent any feigns into the interior. Nobody expected an attack from within as navigating the Core was said to be impossible. However, Pall was able to do the impossible and black ships appeared above the skies of Coruscant in droves overwhelming Coruscant's meager defenses.

During the battle, the three Dark Jedi commanders, Pall, Syn, and Dreypa, would stay on different ships to coordinate the attack. Hord meanwhile was chosen to lead the landing craft once a hole opened up in Coruscant's shield defense grid. The Dark Jedi's abilities would serve as perfect complements, Pall would provide battle precognition, Dreypa would provide battle meditation, and Syn would use her fear ability to disorganize Coruscant's defenses.

When the battle started, this strategy worked. Within minutes, Coruscant's defense stations were pinned down under heavy turbolaser fire and the fleet was organized as to minimize the possibility of Coruscant launching a counteroffensive. However, right as they were drilling a hole in the shield array, Coruscant's defenses began to reorganize. All of a sudden, it seemed that Syn's fear attacks were blocked by a massive psychic wall and Dreypa's battle mediation was being countered by an even more powerful practitioner of the art.

At his moment, Pall knew the cause. It was his former master, the Jedi grandmaster emeritus Uro Koo. The powerful Neti was using his own considerable power to sway the battle in favor of Coruscant by countering the powers of both Dark Jedi and by using his own battle meditation to coordinate the defense of Coruscant. Suddenly, it seemed that the battle was not going to go as well as they planned. Additionally, Pall writes, in an unusually erratic script, that his former master had reached out to him through the Force. He begged Pall to cease the attack and come back to the light. Pall protested that he had never 'fell' to the dark side. To this, Koo mentally sent thousands of images and borrowed memories from dozens of battles in the War of Darkness to Pall. Pall collapsed, semi-conscious, blasted and haunted by these images of the pain and death that he had inflicted upon the galaxy. In anger, Pall launches a psychic attack of his own. He tries to show Koo his vision of the galaxy in flames hoping that it would trigger a reaction. This did not work, and Koo simply pressed his attack harder.

Pall managed to shut out the psychic attack for a few minutes. In that time, he was able to locate Koo on the surface of Coruscant. He sent a message to begin the land assault on Koo's coordinates. Pall knew, of course, that Hord was the one chosen to lead the attack. Pall was under no illusions that Hord could actually defeat his old master, in fact, Pall hoped that Hord would get himself killed, but he simply intended Hord to distract the former grandmaster long enough for them to win the battle.

The landing craft were deployed through the hole in the shields. Koo was meditating on an ancient mountain that had been the headquarters of the last generation of Dark Jedi who had held Coruscant almost a century previously. Waves of landing craft and Star Forge droids descended on this place, almost bombing it to oblivion, but Koo was able to escape into its depths. Hord anticipated this and entered through the bottom. Koo and Hord confronted each other in a large underground chamber. This chamber would one day become part of the future Coruscant Jedi Temple in which it would be used as a training area for younglings who would occasionally whisper legends about this fateful duel.

Hord's Lightsaber:

Leading up to the fight, Hord had constructed a new lightsaber, but first some background is needed. Remember that during the Hundred Year Darkness, Force-imbued steel blades and vibroswords were still very common Jedi weapons. Lightsabers did exist, but they had to be connected to a battery pack for sustained use. This made them not as flexible in most fights. Pall used Star Forge technology to work to get around this problem. He developed a longer-lasting crystalline power cell that could sustain a lightsaber for a short time without using an extension cord. However, these new power cells did not last very long, so Jedi continued to use the extension cord on most occasions. However, they did provide an edge in fast-paced lightsaber duels. Lightsaber duels are usually quick affairs, rarely lasting more than a few minutes. Because of this, the new power cell could be used without too much risk to the user of it shorting out in the middle of a fight. By the end of the war, the Jedi had reverse-engineered this technology and both sides could use it.

Tulak Hord took this to the logical extreme. He welded two lightsabers together, but did so in such a way that they shared most of their systems. He then inserted a single power cell. Therefore, he could wield two lightsabers as a staff without leaving open a huge, vulnerable hilt for an enemy to strike at. Instead, his double, bladed lightsaber was very efficient and not much larger than an average lightsaber. This, of course, cut the amount of time that he could use such a weapon nearly in half, but due to its benefits, the fight was often over in under a minute. Not only could he use a single lightsaber, but he could ignite the opposite blade at a random time and wield it as a staff weapon, changing up his attack style to catch his opponents off guard. He could also toggle these blades on and off and even adjust their length to further confuse any enemies. When the other Dark Jedi first saw this weapon, they thought it looked idiotic. However, over the years, this weapon would give him the reputation of being one of the greatest lightsaber duelists of all time. Few opponents were known to have lasted thirty seconds in a fight with him. The blueprints for this weapon were later discovered by Exar Kun, who became an unparalleled dualist in his own day.

The Duel of the Fates:

(The following summary is composed based primarily off of Tulak Hord's battlefield report. It may be subject to some degree of a bias.)

Hord ignited both ends of his lightsaber. He did not want to use only one blade, then turn on the other catching Koo off guard. Instead, he wanted an honorable duel, so he showed Koo his new lightsaber, thereby giving away his primary advantage.

Koo wielded a green blade, but instead attacked with the Force. He blasted Hord back, throwing him straight through a marble column, but Hord's Force rage allowed him to remain conscious. Three lesser Jedi knights moved in to attack his prone form, but Hord sprang up and drew upon his hatred. He blasted the Jedi with Force lightning, turning them to ash despite their desperate attempt to block the blast with their lightsabers, then sent the lightning arcing towards Koo who absorbed it with the Force. Koo sent the lightning arching back at Hord, but he tanked the damage 'like a true Sith Warrior.' (The term 'Sith' is not uses anachronistically here. Hord was a Sith Pureblood and was always eager to boast about his species superiority.)

Koo then tried to use his Force Light ability on Hord. This attack, had it succeeded, would have severed him from the Force. However, Hord resisted it by using the ability Consume Essence to draw upon the death wrought on Coruscant, draining the planet's energy to fight off Koo's attack. Hord then rushed at Koo and they engaged in a lightsaber duel. Hord reports that Koo's attacks were so fast that they appeared to be fading in and out of existence, then Koo redoubled his attack speed, and he appeared to be striking so fast that he was traveling backwards in time. However, Hord was able to counter this storm of blows and launch his own, even faster attack.

Hord forced Koo back. Koo drew upon the power of the life around him and sent vines to whip and ensnare Hord. However, Hord sliced through them with his lightsaber, and they continued to fight. Hord then used lightning to ignite the parched ground, causing flames to rise up and dance around them. Koo desperately launched a telepathic attack, trying to turn Hord's fears against him and to turn him back to the light. However, Hord reports that he had no fear and therefore he was too powerful to be weakened by the light. Hord then lashed at Koo and severed his arm. Despite this, Koo continued to fight until at last Hord struck him down.

In the aftermath, Hord stood in the flaming cavern. Then, no less than two dozen Jedi, including at least four Jedi Council members arrived at both ends of the cavern to arrest him. They demanded that in the name of the Republic, he surrender. However, Hord responded that he was the new Emperor of Coruscant and therefore the Jedi would be committing treason to attack him. The Jedi didn't buy it. Hord reports that he drew upon the dark side and unleashed a massive Force scream that blasted the Jedi back. He then Force lept into the air, did a 10,365-degree multi-dimensional corkscrew spin while holding his double-bladed lightsaber out and gyrating it around in the air, and cut down a dozen Jedi within the first second of their fight. He then unleashed a Force wave that kept the other Jedi on the defensive, then reached up and used the Force to bring down the cavern ceiling, killing the rest of the Jedi.

Hord walked out of the cavern and made his way to the Republic Senate building where he led his troops to a further glorious victory.

The Aftermath:

The most iconic photo of this battle is a picture taken by an unknown Black Legions soldier of his commanding officer, Tulak Hord. In this photo, Hord is sitting back with his legs up, boots resting on the Supreme Chancellor's desk. In it, he is smoking a large cigar and holding a glass of champagne out as if making a toast. In the background, one can see several half-naked female Twi'leks, who appear to be trying to get as far away from Hord as possible, and further in the background, one can see the Senate building burning. In front of the desk, one can see a bloodstained Republic flag, and on the floor in front of the flag is the dead body of Supreme Chancellor Soren Ductavis III. The caption reads, 'The old king is dead, long live the king.'

This photo was attached to Hord's battle report, and later leaked to the general public to be distributed across every major communication channel in the Republic. Pall writes, in a script that is barely legible, that he reacted to Koo's death by going into a nightmare-induced coma. This page in his journal is bloodstained.

The Black Fleet laid waste to the Republic administrative buildings and Coruscant's defensive grid before jumping to hyperspace and carving a trail of destruction through Alsakan, Anaxes, and Brentaal before finally jumping to the Black Legions held Uvluy Exen. Hord comanded these attacks as Pall was in a coma at the time. This caused a large percent of still neutral systems to pitch in with the Legions as they saw the Republic as rotting from within. However, instead of dying a quick death, these attacks enraged the Republic. Now the war was truly underway and everything was put into it, despite the Republic being much smaller than it was at the onset of the war. The industrial behemoth of the Republic was finally awoken.

The body of Uro Koo, being a plantlike Neti, was found to be still partially alive. While he left no descendants, these clippings were carried back to his homeworld of Vaklin, where they were preserved in a garden. Thousands of years later, when the Jedi Temple arose over the place of his death, a small Force-sensitive tree grown from his body was taken to the central courtyard of the Temple and planted in his memory.

This daring strike into the Core, as well as the massacres at Yn and Chabosh, are remembered as some of the worst atrocities of the war.


	27. Ch 27: Tulak Hord's Gang

Tulak Hord's Gang

Despite being one of the founding Dark Jedi, Pall did his best to make sure that Tulak Hord never rose in his ranks. The reason for this is because Hord was not exactly an ideal 'Jedi reformer.' However, this is to be expected. All if the other founding Dark Jedi were Jedi once, and they were driven, for the most part, by the desire to recreate the Jedi Order. Hord was not a Jedi, and he simply wanted to conquer things.

Pall writes that he contemplated killing Hord but refrained from doing so. At first, it was because Hord hadn't yet done anything 'that bad' and Pall saw him as a valuable asset, and towards the end of the war, Hord was so loved by a certain percentage of Dark Jedi that Pall couldn't take any serious action against him without losing popularity amongst his most devoted followers.

Khem Val:

Khem Val was a Dashade who became Hord's most devoted follower. He was born on Urkupp where he became the greatest shadow assassin on the planet. He was a hulking monstrosity with various cybernetic implants, but his real power came from the Force. Dashade, as a species, are mildly Force-sensitive. (That is to say, their average midichlorian count is higher than that of, say, Iktotchi, but lower than that of Force-sensitive species such as Sith Purebloods.) However, very rarely do Dashade learn to use the Force in any way past the most basic applications. (Biologists believe this is another inherited genetic trait.) However, they are especially adept at using the Force to resist others Force attacks. They can draw upon their own power to nullify direct Force based attacks, such as telekinesis.

Khem Val was a master of this technique. However, Val also possessed an additional ability that made him even more dangerous: he had the ability to form powerful Force bonds with others. This instinctual ability allowed him to not only forge bonds between him and his allies, but to draw upon their experience to increase his own instinctual knowledge of combat. Many Jedi neurologists believe that this works by utilizing a much lesser form of the Force Meld technique. The minds of those who share a Force bond with each other become so in-sync that 'muscle memory' is transferred from one brain to another. This can even happen between enemies. In an intense fight, a weak Force bond can form between one who is apt to form bonds and their enemy. The enemy's skills and abilities can then be 'copied,' at least subconsciously, by the one who formed the bond.

Using this instinctual technique, it is no wonder that he became so deadly. However, his ability to form Force bonds did not stop there. His most insidious ability manifested itself in his ability to draw upon these bonds to 'feed' upon the life force of his enemies. When he struck down an enemy, he could draw upon their fading life force, consuming it, draining it, to regenerate or heal himself. People with this ability are often called 'Force Anomalies,' as they are similar to living Force vergences, but they draw their ability at least partially from others. There have been other famous Jedi and Sith with this ability, most notably Zelashiel the Blasphemer, Vitiate, Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, the Jedi Exile Meetra Surik, the Emperor's Wrath Lord Scourge, and the Brotherhood of Darkness leader Lord Kaan.

When Hord captured Urkupp, Val challenged him to an honor duel. The terms of the deal were that the winner would have the loser at his mercy. Although Hord was in a superior position (he did conquer the planet after all) he wanted to look good in front of everybody, so he accepted. Both combatants walked into the ring utterly confident in their abilities, and after a long fight, Hord won. Val swore a life-debt to Hord, and they became best friends who literally bonded over fields of corpses.

Interlude: Korriban at the Time:

As mentioned before (in ch. 16) around 7,000 BBY, Korriban was engulfed in yet another civil war. Around this time, the Sith were able to reach spacefaring status, or at least they were to an extent. Most Sith lived in a primitive state of poverty, with many belonging to the nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of their ancestors, as was the case for Tulak Hord himself. Eventually, Dathka Graush was able to become the reigning Sith king, and he often used half-forgotten technology from the time of the Hathor Heresy to gain power. He was a sorcerer who was infamous for reanimating the dead and creating legions of corpses from the trenches and mass graves of Korriban's battlefields and slaughtered cities. Eventually Graush unified Korriban and died circa. 6,950 BBY.

He was succeeded by Hakagram Graush I who reigned up until Pall formally took control of the planet in 6,911 BBY. When the Dark Jedi invaded, Hakagram was brought before Pall. Pall then took his lightsaber and beheaded the Sith king. The Dark Jedi demanded respect from the Sith people, but there was no strong, central government left in place, as Pall believed that the only way to ensure peace amongst a Force-sensitive and warlike people would be to dismantle their government and leave nothing in place. That way the Sith peasants and nomads would be free to do their own thing, while atrocities would happen on a much smaller scale.

Pall then authorized the creation of a secret academy and research institution on a remote part of Korriban. Since the Sith were in a state of disorganization, they would not be able to bother the Dark Jedi academy. Now, Korriban was supposed to be carefully guarded and off the maps, as were all worlds relating to the ancient Rakata, but Pall still authorized the creation of the academy on Korriban to serve as a secret proving-ground for promising apprentices and for Dark Jedi scholars to study the ancient Sith people under the understanding that the academy and research there would be hidden. The most powerful of these hidden apprentices was Aloysius Kallig.

Aloysius Kallig:

Kallig was an incredibly powerful apprentice who trained to be a Dark Jedi and Sith Warrior. He was born circa. 6,928 BBY, and so was twenty when he was discovered by the Dark Jedi. It is unknown why he was passed over by the Jedi, but it is likely that due to the war-torn and fragmented state of the galaxy, the Jedi were just not around to discover him. Pall discovered the boy and believed him to be one of the few Force-sensitives alive with close to his own level of potential. Circa. 6,908 BBY, Pall put Kallig into the secret elite academy that he opened on the planet Korriban, and at this academy Kallig excelled.

Kallig quickly surpassed his teachers in lightsaber combat, Force abilities, and war strategy. In fact, these abilities combined made some believe that Kallig could be Pall's heir. However, in 6,906 BBY, the academy was shut down to preserve secrecy. Kallig did not want to get sent on some random mission in service of the war, instead he wanted to put his skills in war strategy and leadership to the test. He approached Tulak Hord, who at the time was preparing for an attack on the planet Yn, and asked if he would advocate Kallig gaining a position under Hord. Hord laughed and kicked the kid out.

Kallig then challenged Hord's top general to an honor duel. The general laughed as well, but agreed. When Hord heard about this he was amused and came to watch. The fight was quick, and Kallig, despite having only two years of experience, was able to defeat the general, but spared his life. Hord couldn't believe it, but he gave Kallig the order to kill the general and he would reconsider Kallig's offer. Kallig did so, and Hord promoted him to the dead general's rank, and together they went off to take the planet Yn.

Pall did not find out about Hord executing one of his generals until much later, but when he did it was one of the few crimes brought against Hord that did not relate to genocide.

Ortan Cela:

Ortan Cela was Tulak Hord's apprentice and by all accounts a complete joke as a Dark Jedi and later Sith Lord.

A, possibly apocryphal, goes that one time he was sent to board a ship to capture a Jedi. He ran into the Jedi's bodyguard who was a common Republic ensign. The ensign sealed shut a pair of blast doors in order to trap himself in the same room as Cela. He was willing to sacrifice his life to give the Jedi time to escape. The ensign faced off against the Dark Jedi- and the ensign won, with Cela retreating back to his ship in shame. Another story goes that he was beat up by a team of astronomers from the Intergalactic Union of Astronomers.

Whatever the case may be, Cela was a terrible Dark Jedi. The only reason that Hord chose him to be his apprentice is because he was, rightly, afraid that an apprentice could one day become a threat. Unlike most Dark Jedi or Sith who like to choose powerful apprentices knowing that they could one day be a threat, Hord chose a weak apprentice knowing that he could never be a threat. In essence, Hord wanted someone whom he could boss around without the possibility of said person fighting back.

However, due to Cela's weakness, he sent the Dashade warrior Veshikk Urk, who was a rival of Val, to babysit him. Officially, Cela was Urk's boss, but in actuality Urk was just there to make sure that Cela didn't get into too much trouble.

In time, Val, Kallig, and Cela would become Hord's most devoted followers who would become infamous for their contributions to the genocides at Yn and Chabosh.

Yn and Chabosh:

Yn and Chabosh were both held firmly in the grasp of the Black Legions. The Jedi knew this and they knew that if the Legions continued their unstoppable advance the entire Republic would be overrun. To counter this, they sent Jedi to infiltrate territory held by the Legions in order to find pockets of resistance. The Jedi were to help these pockets grow for that hopefully they would be a cancer that would eat the Legions from the inside.

The most successful operations were performed on the planets of Yn and Chabosh. These planets had a large population of Republic loyalists, and with some encouragement from the Jedi, they sprang up into nexuses of resistance. These planets were the bases of black market operations to supply resistance fighters with weapons, and they themselves had considerable resistance movements as well. The Black Legions expended considerable energy and resources in various attempts to stop the spread of these movements, but these campaigns were ineffective. To make matters worse, the Jedi were running underground Jedi academies. Resistance fighters who displayed signs of Force-sensitivity were trained as emergency Jedi padawans. In fact, resistance fighters from all over who were believed to be Force-sensitive were sent to these two locations for training. The result was that these planets were turning out armies of Jedi trained in guerrilla warfare. Eventually, circa. 6,906 BBY, Tulak Hord and his gang were sent in to deal with the problem.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: I realize that this fic will be a lot longer than I originally intended it to be. As I do not want to end up with one 500,000 word behemoth, I will be breaking this up into multiple 'Books' each covering a span of time. As a result, this will likely be only the first. I do this for clarity and also because people may want to read about only their favorite sith rather than a flood of information about ancient sith.**_

 _ **Also, thank you to everyone who has read and commented on this. It means a lot. If you have any questions, suggestions, or criticisms, please let me know.**_

 _ **(This note will be deleted in the future)**_


	28. Ch 28: The Ritual and Confrontation

The Ritual and Pall's Confrontation

Circa. 6,906 BBY, or four years into the War of Darkness, the war entered its third stage. In this stage, the Black Legions unstoppable war machine, which had formerly been powerful enough to suck in both independent and Republic-held territory, was slowing down. In this stage, the Republic's economy was finally in wartime production mode. Citizens of the Galaxy were once again ready to be patriotic both because it gave them career options, and because a large percentage of the older generation had died off leaving the youth aspiring to take part in their own war. Already, the War of Darkness was being called the War to End All Wars- or at least the war to end galactic-scale war for the next few hundred years. Citizens of the Galaxy were hopeful that after almost a century of conflict and stagnation the Galaxy could head into a new era of peace.

But sentient bloodlust was not spent just yet, and the worst atrocities of the war were still to come. The battles of Yn and Chabosh were both some of the bloodiest and the two battles that cemented the destructive power of the dark side.

The Battle of Yn:

Circa. 6,906 BBY, Yn was under control of the Black Legions. However, as mentioned last chapter, it was one of the planets that had a strong Jedi saboteur presence. The planet had a variety of climates and temperate zones, but the overall population was low. Most lived on the outlying farms with large populations only being found in the numerous cities on the planet's coastlines. However, while it may not have produced much, Yn was a hub of trade, which made it a valuable target for the Jedi. The Jedi believed that since Yn was a complacent and peaceful world, it would be unlikely for the Legions to spend considerable effort hunting down the Jedi at the cost of possible civilian casualties. Additionally, if the planet did turn into a war zone, it would cause the Legions such an economic and logistical disruption due to its crucial location that it would hardly be worth it.

As a result, Yn was the site of a massive espionage campaign of Jedi vs Dark Jedi. Both parties would send in their trainees, disguised in civilian clothes, on missions throughout the cities. The Jedi would seek to plant charges to blow up shipping vessels, while the Dark Jedi sought to hunt down the Jedi interlopers. During espionage missions such as these, lightsaber duels were common. In fact, civilians could occasionally witness these duels breaking out abroad trains or in the streets right in front of their eyes. Many interesting stories and holos were written about these adventures.

However, these conflicts were often far from glamorous. Very often, gun violence would erupt in the streets as the illegal Jedi tried to fend off the police while supporting rebels launched their own guerrilla offensive. As the months turned to years, the cities grew more and more dangerous and tense. Police were able to keep large scale acts of violence from breaking out, but the overall atmosphere was one of incredible unreleased tension.

Tulak Hord was tasked with rooting out the Jedi and putting down any rebellions. The reason that he was here instead of serving as a general on the front lines was due to the machinations of the Dark Jedi high command, specifically Pall. Pall, as usual, did not trust him to lead armies into battle. When discussing with the other Dark Jedi about what to do with the situations at Yn and Chabosh, Pall greatly, and somewhat sarcastically, emphasized Hord's military expertise. He claimed that due to Hord's record, he would be the perfect agent to perform the impossible task of stopping the Jedi at Yn and Chabosh. The other Dark Jedi leaders seemed to agree. However, Pall, as usual, had an ulterior motive. He wanted to trap Hord in an impossible task so that Pall would not have to worry about Hord giving the rest of the Black Legions a bad name with his overly aggressive military tactics. (read: frequent massacres) The thinking was that not even Hord would be stupid enough to attack their own people.

The Massacre:

For over three months, Hord was content to play the espionage game. However, due to his rank and appearance, he could not partake in the investigations or conflicts himself. Instead, he sat in his desk chair and monitored the various comings and goings of both his agents and their targets. This, predictably, was extremely boring. As a result, when he finally found the location of the suspected clandestine Jedi academy, he led the attack himself.

The Jedi were meeting in a large house on the outskirts of Yn City, the capital. Hord was hesitant to surround the area with Dark Jedi or other special forces in fear of prematurely alerting the Jedi. Instead, he tasked Ortan Cela to infiltrate the house. Hord's reasoning was such a task was easy enough even for him to do, and he believed that his apprentice was so weak that he could not possibly be detected by the Jedi. Even so, he gave the instructions to Cela that if he failed to report back, he would be presumed dead and Hord would know the location of the Jedi.

Cela was able to sneak in, although the Jedi ironically thought that he was a lost padawan. The Jedi and Cela ended up chatting for a while, so long in fact, that Cela forgot to report back to Hord. He was presumed dead, and Hord ordered the house to be destroyed with turbolaser fire. However, since turbolasers from space are amazingly inaccurate, he ended up destroying most of the neighborhood. Ironically, the house was almost unscathed. Dozens of innocent civilians died. This incident caused a series of open rebellions to break out across the planet.

Cela was later found alive and well. Hord congratulated him on a job well done as now he could wage open war against the planet. When the rebellions broke out, at first they were small, but they grew. Hord responded with force which caused the rebellion to grow larger and larger. At first, some blamed the violence on Hord exclusively, and many tried to contact the Dark Jedi high command to explain the situation, but information traveled slowly in those days and the Dark Jedi were attending to the war effort on other fronts. They did not get back in time. Hord also barred civilian transports from leaving as such ships could contain Jedi. As a result, many citizens who once lived in the city were forced to hasilly evacuate to the plains.

The planetary government declared their independence, giving into the rebellions, but this just caused Hord to come down on the planet's official government just as hard. As violence consumed the once wealthy capital the Jedi fought on the front lines. Hord knew that he must find a way to defeat them all without the possibility of any escaping, so instead of destroying the city from orbit, he studied in depth Sith Sorcery and the Dark Jedi arts to come up with a ritual that could do so.

The Ritual:

As the death and destruction increased, the Force became tainted with echoes of the dead and dying. Hord, and his followers, were able to feel them. They devised a ritual that could consume these death-pulses and channel them into an ever increasing wave of destruction, thereby draining more and more life.

This ritual had very striking similarities to the one performed by Ku'ar Danar in the Nilrebmah system which raises some interesting questions as to where he learned of such a ritual. This is especially concerning as Hord was not known for his academic knowledge as to the history of the ancient Sith and their more obscure branches. Now while it is true that Hord was an accomplished Sith Sorcerer in his own right, it is doubtful that he could have developed such a ritual, even in the primitive form that he used, by himself. However, due to the vast aeons of time between the present and Hord's day, it is likely that historians will forever be left in the dark about this, unless new information is uncovered.

The ritual stated by melding the minds of the Dark Jedi participants together with the dark side. They then used a variation of the Consume Essence ability to feed off the death and dark side feelings of the city and the planet as a whole. Consume Essence is a common Sith ability which allows its user to draw the dark side of a person into the user's own Force potential. It is useful, but not that powerful. It, in essence, turns the user into a Force parasite who sucks the energy of others. This energy built up until it manifested in the Force Drain ability, which operates upon similar principles, but is much more energy-consuming on the user's part and has a shorter range. However, Force drain is powerful enough to kill its victims. With so many Dark Jedi performing the ritual in unison, the death field was wise. The entire city died and the Force energy of its citizens was channeled into an ever-widening pulse of death. Eventually, the death field ran out of energy and stopped, but not before hundreds of square kilometers was turned into a charnel field.

Everyone in the city and surrounding areas, including the Jedi, died. The only survivors were the Dark Jedi themselves. Hord then ordered other cities to be burned to the ground in demonstration. The aftermath was one of immediate shock, horror, and outrage. Public support turned against the Dark Jedi leadership. However, Hord was already on his way to Chabosh.

Chabosh:

Chabosh was a world very much like Yn. It had a variety of climates and was a central port planet that had become infested with Jedi. Hord traveled so fast that the news of the tragedy at Yn was just beginning to spread. Hord announced what he had done on Yn. He demanded that if the planet did not hand over its Jedi, he would do the same. A bounty was posted on the Jedi, but the Jedi leaders did not give in. Still, many knights and padawans turned themselves over in the hopes that Hord would leave. These Jedi were bound and put in electric cages in the middle of the city. However, because the Jedi did not comply completely, when the deadline began, Hord started the ritual.

They began in the middle of the city. The planet declared war upon the Dark Jedi in fear, but it was too late. An army of Star Forge combat droids guarded the perimeter, preventing the Dark Jedi from being interrupted. EVentually, the Jedi who had surrendered were put to the sword, and their dying life force was channeled into the rituals. The militants fought the droids in the street, but they were slowly drained of life until at last the death field expanded like a bomb wave with Hord standing on ground zero. Again, millions died, and Hord ordered other cities to be burnt.

Hord's Arrest:

When Pall received word of what happened at Yn, he was outraged. He sent his fleet to Chabosh immediately, but it was too late. Most of the cities had already been devastated. In the attacks and their aftermath, tens of millions died. However, some populations were able to survive in the rural farmland as these areas were not bombed as badly. Pall immediately ordered Hord's fleet to assume his command. They did so. He then went down to the planet's surface, and Pall confronted Hord upon the plains of Chabosh. Pall ordered Hord to surrender so that he could answer for his crimes.

In his latter years, Hord writes about the encounter. His record does not have any of his usual self-confidence and bluster. Instead, he writes as if it were one of his greatest failures. He says that Pall appeared to be a weathered old man, despite his youth. He could tell that Pall was one of those people who did not give into their inner savagery, but tried to contain their heart of darkness, and so he was wounded by the war. Hord did not have this weakness, and yet Pall was the only Dark Jedi that he ever feared- mainly because he was the only one able to fight both the war and his inner darkness at the same time. Hord confidently asserts that he could have beaten all other Dark Jedi, with the possible exception of Muur, but he did not want to fight Pall. Looking back, he admits that he was wise to do so. While he would have had an advantage when it came to lightsaber and physical combat, due to Pall's heightened precognition, Hord's unpredictable lightsaber style would be less effective. Regardless, Pall was much stronger in the Force anyway. Hord was intimidated and surrendered.

Hord writes that if only he had trained more, if only he had discovered more ancient artefacts and powers, if only he could have found a way to increase his own powers to the level of the most powerful Dark Jedi, he could have stood a chance, and had he defeated Pall, the Galaxy could have been his. He believed that Pall was just as powerful as his master had been in the Force, but far more able to handle his unpredictable lightsaber style. (This hints that his victory over Koo was due more to his unusual lightsaber form than it was pure skill.) And so he surrendered and was later exiled.


	29. Ch 29: Hord's Exile

Hord's Exile

Hord was arrested and tried by the Black Legions. This move was very controversial amongst the Dark Jedi, especially among the newer recruits. Hord was unpopular among Karness Muur and Remulus Dreypa who saw him a rival, and a sociopathic and flamboyant one at that. However, Sorzus Syn and XoXaan were both more tolerant. Xaan saw him as a capable general, and Syn saw him as a sorcery prodigy.

At this point, it's important to remember that the Dark Jedi and their soldiers were five years into an extremely bloody war. As a result, victory was seen as the ultimate objective and things like civilian casualties were much less relevant to some. Because of this, the Dark Jedi were divided over ideological differences. While simplifying moral viewpoints is a tricky affair, it is helpful, at least for this brief discussion, to divide the Dark Jedi into two main camps.

Pall can be seen as the figurehead of the first faction. These were the Jedi reformers. They joined the war looking for some type of major change in the Jedi Order, but they did not want to destroy the Jedi completely. They can be seen as wanting to strike a balance between the light and dark with the overall end goal of serving the Force and all life in general. They were on the whole more conservative in their teachings and attitudes. As a result, they were often against things like striking at civilian targets, if it could be avoided, and proliferating unrestrained dark side experimentation.

Hord can be seen as the figurehead for the second faction. These were the 'true' Dark Jedi. They wanted to completely replace the Jedi Order with their own. They can be seen as the opposite of the Jedi, that is, they wanted to give completely into the dark side and toss out all old Jedi teachings. As a result, they were more radical in their cause, and they were willing to do things that Jedi or more conservative Dark Jedi would be horrified by. They were much more willing to strike at noncombatants and were willing to embrace research into new dark side fields of study, such as Sorcery and Alchemy. Most Dark Jedi in this group did not originate from Pall's militant group. Instead they belonged to dark side orders born in the past century who were absorbed into the fold by Pall. As a result, this group held a slight majority.

As usual, these parties are overly simplified. However, it is important to stress that they were divided not just among moral lines, that is to say on the question of military ethics, but they were also divided in what teachings or legacy would they pass on to their successors. The actual code that future Dark Jedi would follow was a murky one as several groups and subgroups were committed to emphasize whatever they saw as important.

The Trial and Sentence:

The exact dates are lost to history, but it is known that the trial began in the ninth month of the fifth year of the war, or circa. 6,905 BBY. Throughout the trial, he was bound and unarmed, yet he knew how to make his voice a powerful weapon. He had no knowledge of debate, and Pall often had to call him out on his fallacies, but he had the skill to manipulate his words in such a way as to excite emotion and sympathy for his cause. Whenever he could, he would speak about the Dark Jedi as a unity, thereby implying that they were all behind his intentions. He would then demonize the Republic as enemies, thereby implying that they served no mercy. Throughout it all, his supporters would cheer him on while his foes would roll their eyes.

Pall wanted the death penalty for him, but he knew that Hord was, in many ways, too popular to kill. It was a pivotal moment in the war, and sentencing one of their best generals to death would excite rebelion and schism. This is why Pall did not kill Hord on the battlefield, he wanted to try and convict him for that his supporters would complain less, and more importantly, not target Pall's own life until Pall's plans could be fulfilled. As a result, Pall did not preside over the trial, nor did he serve as the prosecutor. Instead, he appointed Muur to do so for that he could stick to coordinating the war effort.

The trial was a mixed bag for Pall. On the one hand, it was not too hard to convict Hord. He had violated many military protocols and ethical codes, plus he had attempted a dangerous dark side ritual of his own invention without contacting the Head of Sorcery, Sorzus Syn. However, Hord had too much support to earn the death penalty. The most that Pall could hope for would be a serious demotion or exile. The defendants and prosecutors argued back and forth until at last Pall sent a letter to the court offering a compromise. The deal would be that Hord would be demoted, but that he would be assigned to the truly honorable and invaluable task of mapping the entirety Wild Space in service of the Black Legions for the next decade during which time he would have minimal contact with the rest of the Galaxy. Everyone thought that it was a good idea, and the motion was carried.

Hord, predictably, protested. In a fit of rage, he claimed that he was 'screwed over' and so he challenged Muur to an honor duel. Muur calmly explained that in civilized space, they don't do things they way they do things on 'a backwater world full of primitive red apes.' However, after the comotion, Hord's supporters began to demand that he have a chance to fight for his honor. Pall was almost beyond caring what happened to Hord at this point. In another bloodstained passage of his journal, he writes that it would have been easier and much less of a headache to just have killed him when he had the chance. He gave Muur the terms: if Hord wins, he goes off to explore with full military honors; if Hord loses, he goes off to explore stripped of all titles; if he loses and dies in the process, he stays dead. Either way, he would be gone, but Pall explicitly told Muur which option would be the best.

The Duel:

Before the duel, Hord's customized lightsaber was returned to him, and he was allowed to bring his traditional combat armor into play, complete with his own customized sith gauntlets and mask. However, Muur utilized a specialized weapon as well. Muur was a lightsaber dueling specialist, and so he utilized the style of combat that would eventually come to be known as the Makashi form. However, he found the lightsaber extension cord to be a particularly embarrassing vulnerability. He modified it to run on an advanced hilt-housed power cell, and to further utilize its newfound flexibility and reach, he designed it with a curved hilt to better fit into his palm.

If Hord's style can be described as a precursor to Exar Kun's, Muur's can be described as foreshadowing the deadly grace and efficiency of Count Dooku. However, for both fighters, they were more limited, not by their skill or Force abilities, but by their technology. Both fighters were handicapped by lightsaber power cells that lasted only minutes. However, of the two, Hord suffered the most as he wielded a double-bladed lightsaber which ate up much more energy. It was on this advantage that Muur was counting on.

The duel began with both combatants facing each other, then both rushed and the battlefield was engulfed in a display of fire and lightning. Witnesses are conflicted on what actually happened, but all testify to the speed and power of both fighters. Hord came down on Muur with his double-bladed barrage. He hoped to confuse Muur and thereby create an opening, but Muur used his extended reach and dexterity to keep him at bay while he watched his footwork to gain a tactical advantage. Every now and then when Muur was pressed, he fell back on his superior Force abilities to blast Hord back with telekinetic waves and lightning storms. However, Hord's own powers, while inferior, could still counter.

After minutes of fighting, Hord's lightsaber cut off. Muur smiled and taunted his opponent, but Hord didn't surrender, for Hord had also been playing the waiting game. Muur's power in the Force may have been greater, but his reserves dried up quick. Hord took advantage of this by tempting his foe into using up all of his power during the initial fight, and once disarmed, Hord unleashed a telekinetic storm on Muur. Muur was forced to counter by slicing several large pieces of debris into smaller chunks that he could then deflect with a weaker Force whirlwind, but through it all, he managed to endure and gain the upper hand by working his way towards his defenseless foe. He stood in front of Hord, who was nearly out of energy, both physically and in the Force, but Hord did not surrender.

Muur thrust forward, and Hord caught his blade in his own enchanted Sith gauntlets. The gauntlets heated up and started to melt, burning Hord's hands, but they prevented the deadly blade from contacting with Hord's body. He then twisted the blade and disarmed Muur. Hord then slapped Muur with his superheated gauntlets and proceeded to beat him to a bloody and burned pulp until he surrendered. Hord then proceeded to jumped up and down, pandering to the crowd like a professional wrestler who had just won the Intergalactic Championship Belt.

The Departure:

Ironically, the planet chosen as Hord's farewell point was none other than his birth home of Korriban. He was sent off with a small fleet of cruisers into unknown space. His orders were to send back the ship's log every month and not to enter known space until the end of his journey. He left, not as an exile, but as a war hero off to face the perils of the unknown for the greater good of the Galaxy.

Pall attended the ceremony and watched him leave. The fight may not have gone as he wanted it to go, but everything was still proceeding according to his plan. Pall had deliberately chosen this mission for him. He wanted a way to dispose of Hord while making it look like an accident, and there is no better way to do so than to send him up against an unknown terror that he had no hope of defeating. The darkness in Pall's dreams came from the dead worlds of Wild Space. He had a suspicion of what it was, and wished to use Hord as the expendable probe to prod it. Even though Pall would not have the satisfaction of watching Hord die, Hord would continue to unwittingly serve Pall.

Before Pall left Korriban, he left his three swords behind: the one he built on Lettow, the one he built on Tython, and a third one, his main one, he built using the power of the Star Forge. These swords were stored in a rocky cave, never to be seen again- or so he intended. Pall realized that while he was still in the physical prime of his life, he was getting too old to wield the blades effectively. His body was becoming frail due to his deep reliance on the Force, his sedentary lifestyle, and the overall stress of the war. And the war wouldn't end for another four years.


	30. Ch 30: Teachings of the Sith

The Teachings of the Sith

When the first Sith prophet, Typhojem, died, he passed on his teachings. It is unknown by which method he accomplished this by, but it is thought that he utilized some sort of primitive holocron technology.

A Short History of Holocron Technology:

The first known use of holocron technology was by the Kwa species. An observant reader may remember that the Kwa were briefly mentioned in chapters 3 and 6 in relation to the Celestials and the Rakata. In fact, the Kwa can be thought of as the intermediary species that directly links the Celestials to the Rakata.

Their history is far too long to go into in depth, but it should be noted that they were a species of Force-sensitive reptiles native to Dathomir in ancient times. Their story begins with the Celestials. It is thought that they were a Celestial slave race circa. 100,000 BBY, although after the War in Heaven and the collapse of the Celestial empire, they were driven underground and nearly to extinction due to the overall turmoil. However, they rose to galactic dominance several times, notably circa. 40,000 BBY after another period of near-extinction. They are remembered as being the species who gave the monstrous Rakata their technology as well teaching them to use the Force. This later on came back to bite them when the Rakata finally put an end to the Kwa species. However, their technology is remembered as being some of the most advanced that the Galaxy has ever seen, their species being placed at 'Tier 1' on a standard Obroa-Skai Technological Advancement Scale.

One of their Force-imbued technological marvels is the holocron. I mention that Typhojem is likely to have had some primitive form of a holocron there is evidence to suggest that similar devices were used by the Celestials and their servant races. However, as far as we know, the technology for proper holocrons was only developed by the Kwa. This technology has two direct descendants: the Jedi and the Rakata.

This holocron technology was left behind on Tython when the Kwa were forced to vacate the planet, circa. 37,000 BBY. When the Je'daii Order developed on Tython, occasionally these old holocrons were studies, but the technology wasn't widely replicated until after the collapse of the Je'daii and the formation of the Jedi Order.

The Rakata also inherited this technology, and they used it to store their teachings for the duration of their empire. As mentioned in ch. 8, this technology was introduced, or reintroduced, to the Sith during the reign of Adas.

Alchemy and Sithspawn:

The original teachings of the Sith were passed on throughout the Age of the Gods. They were based mainly off of texts attributed to Typhojem, but also from other ancient Sith leaders. Around the time of Adas's reign during the First Imperium of the Sith, these teachings were finally compiled into several holocrons, such as the Dark Holocron, so named because it was thought to contain all information on the dark side in existence.

Ajunta Pall came into contact with one of these holocrons circa. 6,911 BBY when he beheaded Hakagram Graush. He and the other Dark Jedi studied from this holocron, but it's teachings were not put into effect until much later, towards the end of the war. The reason for this is because most of it contained alchemical texts which required long periods of study and experiment to put into effect. However, it was from these holocrons that the Dark Jedi learned a great deal about the Sith, and using their teachings, the Dark Jedi were able to create massive alchemically created monsters, known as Sithspawn. Sorzus Syn was by far the best sorcerer and alchemist of the Black Legions, but they all knew the basics of the art.

Some of the most dangerous of these new life forms were the Pit-Horrors, were amphibians who bred rapidly and were known to inhabit swampy marshes and the blasted out craters of battlefields. In this long and grueling war, there were many planets that were turned into massive no-man's-lands with long muddy trenches on either side. The Pit-Horrors were unleashed hoping to break these stalmates or to fortify the Black Legions position by making their trenches unusable and dangerous. The Pit-Horror would often lay its eggs in a corpse, or sometimes a still-living sentient, and these spawn would burst out and continue to haunt the area of their birth, preying upon those foolish enough to fall in the mud. They were also unleashed on more wet planets, in which they became an invasive species. Republic and Black Legion troops alike suffered heavy casualties wading through the waist high marshes and swamps. But worst of all, the Pit-Horror could enter a dormant state in which they could sleep for years when food became scarce, meaning that for years to come, these ancient battlefields were practical mindfields full of them.

Another created creature was the Howler. These were fast and agile predatory lizards who lived on jungle worlds. They were infamous for unleashing a thunderous shriek to stun and deafen their prey before attacking. Interestingly, this shriek was both audible and, to an extent, telepathic. They were not very durable, and as such they relied mainly on ambush tactics. Along with Pit-Horrors, Howlers were used to great effect on swamp worlds, with the Horrors haunting the waters and the Howlers haunting the trees.

Perhaps the deadliest of these pests was the Shambler. Shamblers were small, leech-like predators who attached themselves to their prey. They had a strange blister on their backs which literally drained the life force of their prey. In essence, they were a creature designed for the sole purpose of being a weaponized Force-drain. The first Shamblers were created using Syrox embryos. Syrox are worm-like parasites, closely related to the Sarlacc, that can grow to enormous sizes. Syrox have the strange and terrifying ability to be able to suck the life force out of its victims and keep it trapped in its body, while the life force itself remains intact. Many believe that over time, as these intact life forces build up, they telepathically merge and form some type of demonic sentience in the worm. This is not thought to be a natural occurrence. Indeed, many believe that the Kanzer Exiles are responsible for their creation.

Since these creatures are basically breedable weapons, it is of no surprise that they were chosen for the experiment. However, due to their slow incubation time, they were modified to breed extremely quickly, at the cost of their size, lifespan, and draining power. These new creatures were known as Shamblers not for their own movement patterns, rather they were infamous for latching onto sentient beings and inducing a state of confusion and then stupor as they drained their victim to death. They were also used in conjunction with Pit-Horrors to infest the craters and trenches of battlefields.

Another, much larger, entity created by the Dark Jedi was the Silan. They were massive tentacled creatures with many tentacles and many mouths that would often dwell in and grow in a hole where they would wait for their prey. Silan have an interesting genetic history. They were created by alchemically splicing together genes taken from the Kdak, a slug-like predator native to Arda-2, and the Sarlacc. Interestingly, both the Kdak and the Sarlacc are thought to have been created by either the Kanzer Exiles, the Celestials as a whole, or one of their servant races. It is thought that the Dark Jedi targeted these ancient bioweapons as their genes would be more mutable and already predisposed to the dark side. Silan were not as effective as the previous three creatures as they simply couldn't breed fast enough. However, they had a very long lifespan leading many to outlive the war and entrench themselves in various ecosystems across the galaxy. Due to their dark side signature, later Jedi would often hunt them down.

The pinnacle of this genetic research was the Leviathan. The Leviathan was introduced in the final days of the war, and they can be seen as the culmination of all previous experiments. They were created by splicing together the genes of the Pit-Horror, Howler, Shambler, and Silan in the most unusual way possible. In fact, many geneticists are baffled by their tissue samples so much that they don't know how the Leviathans were even viable, much less how they could avoid collapsing into a pile of cancer cells. Similarly, they were created by combining the research of Sorzus Syn, Broodica, XoXaan, and Karness Muur together, although of these Syn was their main architect.

They were massive dragon-like creatures that came in various forms due to their highly unusual genetic structure. They were highly Force-sensitive and imbued with the dark side, like the Silan, and much like the Pit-Horror and the Silan, they could hibernate for years, even centuries by entering into a Force-induced coma. They could emit powerful telepathic screams, much like the Howler, but their most infamous ability was the one that they inherited from the Shamblers. Their backs were covered with strange blister pods. These blisters could drain all life in the area, and they could even capture and contain still-intact life essences. Using these essences, they could telepathically drain knowledge, thereby learning to adapt. Due to these factors, they were often considered to be the most terrifying Sithspawn created, although their confirmed kill count is low due to their size making them vulnerable to cannonfire. However, they were the perfect hidden weapons, and many were left dormant for centuries, their larvae scattered across many worlds.

Another Sithspawn weapon, this one designed specifically to hunt Jedi, was the Terentatek. These monsters looked like rancors with giant tusks and longer claws. They were Force-sensitive and could smell Jedi in the Force. They were created by splicing together rancor genes with genes from the Terenta. The Terenta were a species that was actually developed by the ancient Je'daii in their own experiments with alchemy. They were found on the planet Tython on one of Ajunta Pall's trips to the planet for a pilgrimage, and he brought them back out of curiosity. These creatures were bred and employed to great effect against the Jedi. When the tide of the war turned, many Dark Jedi sought to leave behind young Terentatek on various worlds as a hidden trap. They would become a danger for many generations of Jedi.

There was at least one Sithspawn species that was sentient, the Gen'dai. The body of a Gen'dai is made of mostly muscle and nerve fibre, but it is designed to regrow at an extremely rapid rate. As a result, they look like large, twisted masses of muscle and sinew. Their heads were small in comparison to their bodies and look to be very reptilian in appearance. In order for their bodies to perform all the functions necessary for life, the Dark Jedi scientists had to work to make every muscle fibre as if it were its own self-contained organism. The connecting tissue between their distributed nervous system and these muscle fibres could also allow them to sense the electric pulses of other living things. While these processes require an extremely high metabolism, their bodies can actually go dormant for years at a time during periods of hibernation. Due to these factors, Gen'dai had very long lifespans, and it is thought that some of the original may still be alive today. In all, Gen'dai were created to be the perfect predators.

The entire species had a low level of inherent Force sensitivity, however for the most part, the Force was only used as a method of communication between cells and a source of additional power for cell regeneration. However, this sensitivity was too low for them, as a species, to be trained as Dark Jedi. There was, however, one who's inherent Force signature was high enough. The name of this individual has been lost to history and it is likely that he had no name, as the Dark Jedi saw him as little more than an experiment, but in later years he would come to be known as the Deconstructor. He was used as a living weapon during the war, but ended up running away and going into hiding. He does not concern us at the moment, but the Deconstructor would go on to be a terror in later Sith wars, specifically during the days of Darth Ruin.

Pall's Reaction:

Although Ajunta Pall was a skilled alchemist, he wasn't exactly thrilled by the new developments. He didn't try to stop them, but he saw the Dark Jedi's reliance on alchemy to be a desperation tactic, and given the state of the war effort, it was. This will be discussed next.

However, it should be noted that for Pall, Sith lore was valuable for an entirely different reason. For him, Sith lore gave valuable insights into the nature of the Force from a different point of view. Because of this, when the war started to go south and most of the work had been delegated to other Dark Jedi generals, Pall spent much of his time researching and compiling information on the Sith.

Because he had a reputation for having a decaying mental state, many just left him alone in this task. At this point, he also grew close to the alchemist and sorceress Broodica, and even makes occasional references to having had an apprentice whom he taught much. In short, like most people, he took refuge from the hardships of life both in other people and in his work.


	31. Ch 31: On Hyperspace

On Hyperspace

Circa. 6,902 BBY, or roughly two years before the War of Darkness ended, while exploring Wild Space the exiled Tulak Hord made an incredible discovery. Specifically, he discovered the remains of an incredibly advanced civilization that remained hidden, lurking in wild space before being destroyed. These aliens were not the Celestials, but it is necessary to briefly talk about their contributions to hyperspace technology before continuing.

(Warning: This next section reads more like an introductory physics textbook. If this is not for you, you may want to skim or skip over this next section.)

More on Hyperspace Physics:

A reader may remember that all information sent through a subspace ansible travels at the Universal Hyperspace Constant, which is the speed of a 'class one' hyperdrive. The hyperdrive rating system ranks the speeds of hyperdrives relative to this constant. Larger numbers are proportionally slower, and smaller numbers are proportionally faster. A ship with a hyperdrive class of 'two' travels at half the speed of a 'class one' ship. (Many military vessels travel at this speed.) A ship with a hyperdrive class of 'four' travels at a quarter of the speed of the constant. (This is a common speed for civilian transports.) On the other hand, a ship with a hyperdrive class of 'point-five' has a speed twice as fast as the constant. (Speeds this fast are very rare. The _Millennium Falcon_ and modified Imperial Shuttles can reach this speed.) And a ship with a speed of 'point-two five' has a speed four times as fast as the constant. (The only ships that can reach this speed are heavily modified and utilize a hyperspace booster. No normal hyperdrive can reach these speeds.) These values continue to shrink as the theoretical speed reaches closer and closer to zero.

A speed of 'zero' is impossible, as it is infinite speed. However, 'zero' is still useful as a theoretical constant. A theoretical hyperdrive rating of 'zero' is the Universal Information Constant. This is, supposedly, the speed of information sent through hyperspace in a theoretical Perfect Hyperspace Universe. A Perfect Hyperspace Universe is a hypothetical universe that has a total mass of zero, that is to say, no mass or energy whatsoever in it. Obviously this is not the case, and even if it somehow were, the very existence of a wave or particle in hyperspace would imply some sort of matter or energy exists, meaning that is is the ultimate theoretical barrier.

The reason that this is a hypothetical speed in a Perfect Hyperspace Universe is because mass shadows, or gravitational fields, interfere with hyperspace travel. The presence of mass and gravity in the universe slows down hyperspace travel. This is why passing through a hyperspace route too close to a gas cloud can severely delay a trip.

However, it is still possible to calculate the speed of information sent via hyperwave using this constant. It is much like calculating the speed of light in atmosphere or underwater- kinda- the constant doesn't change, but the presence of matter is interfering with its speed. Using hyperwaves, it is possible for a person on Coruscant to have a conversation in real-time with someone else on Geonosis and experience little lag due to distance.

For a reminder, when a ship uses a dimensional drive, it's speed is always lower than the Universal Hyperspace Constant. When a ship uses a hyperdrive, its speed is always lower than the Universal Information Constant.

When a ship uses a dimensional drive, the ship is said to be in 'slipstream space,' or subspace. However, by making the jump into hyperspace, the ship can move faster than even the Universal Hyperspace Constant. (Although it doesn't have to.) The reason for this is because a dimensional drive generates and uses tachyonic matter (hypermatter) to create a hyperspace bubble in spacetime that allows one to 'bypass' realspace. In this state, space is bypassed, but wherever one is in slipstream space, there is a corresponding location in realspace. (Note, this does not mean that a ship in slipstream space is tangible or in any way visible in this state. The ship exists in it's own 'bubble' separate from the universe, this bubble simply 'corresponds' to a location in space. However, as this bubble is completely separate, this is for reference purposes only. A bubble could pass right 'through' another ship and nothing would happen.)

A hyperdrive on the other hand generates a realspace bubble _in hyperspace._ Therefore, when a ship is in hyperspace, it has _no corresponding location_ in realspace, as it is effectively in another dimension. In a sense, dimensional drives and hyperdrives are like mirrors of each other.

The way some quantum hyper physicists explain it is as follows: Immagine two panes of glass (or transparisteel) next to each other with water in the middle. Let's call them 'Pane A' and 'Pane B.' Water droplets can stick to either Pane A or Pane B. Now imagine that you are a small insect that can somehow eat through glass. You are stuck at one end of Pane A and want to get to the other. You can eat your way through the pane of glass to eventually reach the other side, but this takes too long. Instead, you decide to eat your way to the surface of the glass pane and jump into a water bubble and ride it to your destination. In this example, Pane A represents realspace, and the water droplets represent taking a trip through slipstream space. Now let's say that Pane B is much smoother, and so water would travel faster. You can use one bubble to 'jump' to the other, thereby taking a ride along Plane B instead. In this example, Pane B is hyperspace. Now, this example is somewhat misleading as hyperspace is not a location like realspace as this example implies. For a more accurate picture, imagine Pane B suddenly vanishing, but the water droplets still behaving the same way- as if there is some type of invisible surface they can slide on.

Don't get it? Nobody really does. It's one of those things that people use all the time but nobody really knows how it works. Quantum hyper physicists can describe the behavior and appearance of nature, but as soon as one asks what nature is like independently of its appearances, you run into problems. It seems that the true nature of reality is ultimately unknowable.

There is another added benefit of hyperspace technology, and that is for energy generation. When tachyons, or hypermatter, is confined to the dimensions of realspace, it annihilates itself to generate mass/energy in realspace. The formula describing this conversion of hypermatter to mass is (M=IH^2). In this equation, 'I' represents the 'imaginary mass' of hypermatter, and 'H' represents the Universal Hyperspace Constant. This formula can then be plugged into the formula (E=MC^2) to find out how much energy is produced. Given these two formulas, the energy produced by a tiny bit of hypermatter is truly enormous.

Despite the destructive nature in realspace, hypermatter can be 'stored.' To do this, it must be put into a specialized containment field- similar to the containment fields used in hyperdrives. Then, when the hypermatter enters its container, it annihilates itself into a field of 'virtual particles' which exist for a very short time before converting back into hypermatter. The hypermatter then immediately annihilates itself and converts back to a new generation of virtual particles, and the cycle repeats. Although these virtual particles only exist for a short time, their successive generation and annihilation allows hypermatter to be, more or less, safely transported. Throughout this process, very little energy escapes because at no point does hypermatter convert to energy.

There are two ways to generate energy using hypermatter. The first is to convert the hypermatter directly into energy. The second is to use the hypermatter, its containment fields, and various other processes that manipulate subatomic and multidimensional forces, to convert normal matter into a field of virtual particles which are then converted into hypermatter. This hypermatter can then be used to continue the annihilation reaction, or it can be bled off to produce energy. It is these processes that power large capital ships, as well as other devices that utilize vast amounts of power. A large capital ship is said to have the power of a star in its reactors. Indeed, a large war vessel working at full power can annihilate 40,000 tons of matter per second. Now, this number is a bit misleading, as it counts virtual particles which are converted directly back into hypermatter. That is to say that most of the matter annihilated is converted immediately back into more matter causing a very skewed final tally, but the amount of energy generated is still immense.

The reason all this is important is for the next section not to feel like a bunch of technobabble, or, at least, less so. If one does not completely understand the workings of hyperspace, that is fine as this serves as simply a refresher for those who do for that Celestial technology seems less strange.

A Short History of the Hyperdrive pt. 2:

As mentioned back in chapter 24, the Celestials adapted hyperspace technology from several pre existing civilizations. In their early days, they used their massive Cosmic Turbines to launch their spacecraft into hyperspace to traverse the Galaxy. However, these Cosmic Turbines were also able to be used as tools of construction and destruction. They had massive hyperspace tractor beams which were similar to regular tractor beams in that they moved objects, but these tractor beams moved objects through hyperspace, not realspace.

A tractor beam works by setting up a gravitational link between two objects. In this way, it is like a rope binding objects together. These are similar to, but opposite of, repulsors which pushed against gravity wells. Together, along with a hypermatter reactor, these could be used to manipulate both gravity and tachyonic matter to push a ship into hyperspace. These could also be used to unleash the stored energy of hypermatter at a target in the form of gravity or small packets of spacetime gravitational knots. By ejecting these gravitational anomalies into the heart of a planet or star, it was possible to rip apart a small planet, or even trigger a supernova by manipulating the nuclear forces inside the heart of a star.

However, this process required a lot of energy and precision gravity-manipulation technology. As a result, most Cosmic Turbines were massive, as big as a moon or small planet at times. It is thought that whoever ran the station would gather and refine certain elements in ways to power the hypermatter reactor generating this energy.

This was done in two ways. The first was by subjecting atoms of heavy elements, such as uranium, plutonium, and hyperbarides. Since the nuclei of these atoms had a great mass, they would release tremendous energy upon annihilation. A second process was to surround the hypermatter reactor in a fusion reactor. This generated what was like a small star in the middle of the reactor. In this reaction, light elements undergoing fusion would sometimes be caught up in the hypermatter reactor and annihilated. These processes are today used in tandem, and it is thought that by building massive dual phase reactors like this the Celestials were able to power their massive Cosmic Turbines.

This gravity-manipulation technology is not as mysterious as it sounds. During the Mandalorian Wars, Jedi and Republic scientists were able to build a device called the Mass Shadow Generator. This was like a spread-out version of a Cosmic Turbine that manipulated the unique gravitational fields in the Malachor system to crush the planet Malachor V. Later, during the days of the Galactic Empire, Imperial researchers attempted to recreate this weapon and came up with a type of collector-repulsor array which was able to squeeze planetary crusts generating minor seismic disturbances. A more advanced version of this weapon became the Two-Wave Gravshock, which was actually part of an Imperial program to recreate Cosmic Turbines.

A more focused version of this weapon could be created called a Gravitic Polarization Beam. This weapon used a focused gravitational tractor beam, but instead of being fired through hyperspace, the hypermatter was moved along the beam turning its target into a runaway hypermatter reactor. Weapons like these were developed by Old Republic scientists, and the Empire advanced the technology to create Superlaser technology. However, it is thought that these weapons were first theorized by the Celestials.

The Celestials were thought to have set up a series of hyperspace wormhole generators in the Temples of Kooroo. These were believed to have used devices similar to small Gravatic Polarization Beams to rip a stable hole in hyperspace connecting two points. Hyperspace wormholes are extremely rare and unpredictable, but they are certainly possible. Travel through such wormholes is theorized to be much faster than any known hyperdrive, almost as fast as a hyperwave, and it makes sense why it would be so. These wormholes connect two points in spacetime resulting in the flow of hyperspace being already established compared to the hyperspace bubble and warp tunnel generated by the modern hyperdrive. Oddly enough, while hyperspace wormhole travel was presumably invented before the modern hyperdrive, scientists have been unable to recreate them.

Specifically, these were created by the Celestial faction known as the Whills. A reader may remember the Whills as those Celestials who were devoted to the Living Force free from the dark side. They were peaceful and were thought to have inhabited a planet nicknamed 'The Keeper's World,' as they left behind a droid guardian known as 'The Keeper' when their planet was attacked by the Kanzer Exiles, a group of dark side wielding Celestials.

The Whills were scattered and were believed to have taken up residence in the Temples of Kooroo where they installed hyperspace wormhole generators for fast escapes. However, they, like the rest of the Celestials, were eventually hunted down, but their legacy lived on.

This technology would fall into the hands of the Kwa and Gree who would greatly improve upon it. However, as they are not necessary for the following discussion, their contributions will be skipped and in the next chapter we will briefly revisit the Rakata before moving on.


	32. Ch 32: Hyperspace and the Xylan

Hyperspace and the Xylan

The Kwa and Gree both improved upon the Celestial hyperspace wormhole generator. The Gree created their famous 'Hypergates,' large arcs that contained a wormhole generator, and the Kwa created 'Infinity Gates,' so named because it is said that they could be used to create an infinite amount of energy due to hypermatter annihilator. It is also believed that the Kwa, and possibly the Gree, developed what would become known as the moden hyperdrive.

A modern hyperdrive is like a hyperspace wormhole except the ends of the wormhole roll up on each other in such a way that it creates a bubble allowing a ship to slip through hyperspace along a somewhat stable corridor. These are fairly easy to make, if one knows how, and it is likely that both the Kwa and the Gree, and maybe even the Celestials and other races could build them, however, they were just not useful. Navi-computers or hyperspace beacons are almost essential for navigation using a hyperdrive. This creates a strange paradox: in order to have a properly working navi-computer, you need vast amounts of data from repeated hyperspace expeditions and a powerful computer, but to find stable hyperspace routes to collect this data, one requires a functioning navi-computer. This is why, historically, it has taken thousands of years for civilization to spread across the galaxy. Another option would have been to use hyperspace beacons, however, with constantly shifting nebulae and stars, one would have to know of an idea location for the beacon, again requiring hyperspace experience.

It is thought that because of this, the Kwa and Gree only used these devices to find new worlds to set up Hypergates or Infinity Gates on. One way that the Gree used this technology was to create the 'Tumble Hyperdrive,' this is a model, used on many planets, that used a series of quick, short jumps instead of staying in hyperspace for a long time. Because of this, they were slow and dangerous. However, the Gree were able to expand somewhat by using their advanced computing systems to calculate the probabilities of all jumps.

The Kwa took a much different approach. They created a hyperdrive that could be operated with the Force. Using the Force, a Kwa could pinpoint worlds strong in the Force and travel there. This technology was taken up and used by the Rakata.

Rakatan Contributions and Galactic Discovery:

The Rakatan were infamous for creating, or at least improving upon a hyperdrive model that required the Force to operate. Through the Force, one can influence the behavior of subatomic particles in a reaction thereby steering the entire system one way or the other. They used this as a sort of 'key' to prevent their slave races from accessing the hyperdrive.

A Rakatan pilot would then reach out in the Force and locate a world with a strong Force signature. The hyperdrive would then make kick in and the ship would go through a series of short jumps to reach its destination. Using this method, the Rakata were able to spread across the Galaxy, but their Infinite Empire was relatively thin as only Force rich worlds could be accessed.

However, unlike the Kwa, the Rakata did not set up Infinity Gates or any other type of instantaneous transport technology, as the Kwa were able to destroy their most precious technology before it could fall into Rakatan hands. As a result, the Rakata were forced to traverse the Galaxy using only their hyperdrives. After thousands of years of trial and error, they had collected a vast library of data on the nature of hyperspace. Using this data, ships were set with coordinates for ease of travel.

As is to be expected, the Rakata came across several remains of the ancient Celestials. As most Celestial technology had been destroyed during the War in Heaven (circa. 100,000 BBY) or during the Cosmic War (circa. 80,000 BBY) what they found were mostly fragments. However, it is believed that they were able to discover some mostly intact remains of ancient Celestial Cosmic Turbines, but the Rakata, even with armies of slaves, were unable to recreate a labor force great enough to construct these monstrosities. There is also considerable evidence that they took an interest in the Corellian System, specifically in the strange leftover pieces of hyperspace technology stored inside, such as the deactivated Centerpoint Station.

However, as discussed before in passing, the Rakata eventually fell and the races who were once slaves took over and modified their technology. The species that made the greatest contributions were the fanatical and mysterious Xylan.

The Xylan:

When the Celestials were in power, they would often separate slave species based on inherited attributes. For them, the Killik made the central workforce, the Kwa and Ahra Naffi were used as Force sensitive servants, and the Gree and sometimes Bith were used as technological researchers. This division made sense as the Gree and Bith have unusually high intellectual abilities when it comes to mathematics and spatial visualizations. The Rakata kept up this same general division of labor except that they used different species as the ones that the Celestials enslaved were not available.

To create an army of Force sensitives, all the Rakata had to do was harvest Force sensitive individuals from their preexisting slave races. However, when creating a species of engineers, the Rakata decided to create a new species entirely- hence, the Xylan. It is unknown what species was used as the genetic base as almost nothing has been gathered on their genetic makeup. However, we do know that they were humanoid and very tall.

The Rakatan designed them to emphasize mathematical and technical abilities. However, their mental faculties were sufficiently developed in the areas of pattern recognition and they were known for their abilities to understand and empathize with other species as well. It is thought that the Rakatan specifically engineered their brains to be receptive to other species for the purpose of commanding slaves. However, while they were known for their psychological empathy, the Xylan were not known to have any emotional empathy at all. In fact, it seems as if they were designed to have no emotions whatsoever outside of faint intellectual feelings. It is thought that they were designed this way. The Rakata likely did not want them to understand others, but not to let any emotional attachments interfere with their work- after all, they were designed to handle slaves and create weapons. The Rakata probably also valued a lack of emotions in their engineers as it turned them into almost living machines devoted to cold logic and calculations.

The Xylan were put in charge of much of the Rakatan tech in the final days of the Empire. One of their main duties was to develop and categorize all Celestial technology in the hopes of one day recreating their terrifying superweapons. However, the Xylan ran into a problem. While experimenting with controlling and predicting slave masses, the Xylan developed a technique known as Mathematical Psychoeconomics. This technique would later go on to be used and perfected by the Bith Sith Lord Darth Tenebrous, but the Xylan were the first ones to experiment with it. Psychoeconomics combines their skills in mathematics (specifically probability theory and calculus) with their empathic and pattern recognizing skills. Using these abilities, they were able to develop several laws and formulas for predicting group and economic behavior on a large scale. The Xylan were excited and planed to use it on the Rakata themselves.

Mathematical Psychoeconomics:

Psychoeconomics (also called Psychohistory) is based upon analyzing a species or population to determine specific basic psychological conditions. These conditions are then applied as hypothesis which are tested upon general groups to try to predict basic principles of group behavior. When these principles are found, they are calculated against the group's history. Statistical data is gathered and generalized until the psychoeconomists have a concise set of psychological and sociological theories for said experimental population. These are traced up throughout history and into the future where it is used to predict large scale group behavior.

The Xylan studied Rakatan history looking for principles of their psychology and sociological behavior en masse, then they tested several of these hypotheses on their past economic interplays. What they found was shocking. According to their data, the Rakatan Infinite Empire would soon come to a collapse. It was too late to do anything about it, not to mention the fact that the Xylan did not particularly like the illogical and emotional nature of the savage Rakata, so instead the Xylan focused upon securing their research for their own more logical and calculating species- as it had better odds in the long run. As a result, Project Iokath was born.

Project Iokath:

Project Iokath centered around building a large metal sphere around a small star, named Iokath. This was the first and only known instance of a Dyson sphere being successfully created. The Dyson sphere was a hypothetical construct named after by an ancient Coruscanti physicist. It consists of a massive enclosure containing a small star. The star's mass and energy are then used as a fuel source for further construction.

The Xylan were able to recreate much of the technology of the Star Forge, setting up mass harvesting stations all along the star's surface- a design similar to the 'Sun Razors' used by the Sith Empire later on. This mass was then used to build outward. However, these stations were not just used as miniature Star Forge factories, as they contained vast libraries containing all technical information gathered from the Rakata and Celestials. This was known as Project Iokath, an attempt to preserve the knowledge and means to recreate a galactic society after the fall of civilization.

Sure enough, the Rakata fell leaving the Xylan alone to work on their classified projects. Iokath was built around a small and insignificant star in the Unknown Regions bordering on what would come to be known as Wild Space. The Xylan used psychoeconomics to predict that in this location they wouldn't be bothered for at least another ten thousand years. However, despite having very little use for emotions, they were a very logical species and sought to maximize the longevity of their species. To this end, they again used psychoeconomics on themselves and the surrounding galactic landscape.

What they discovered was that the best course of action would be to simply not expand. The Rakata and other species that came before were expansionist which resulted in their demise. The Xylan reasoned that they could just hideout in unknown space for an indefinite and theoretically infinite length of time to avoid being conquered by provoking a more deadly species. A second consequence is that they came to believe that the inevitable downfall of all civilizations is the process of decay caused by successive generations. The motivation of each generation, they believed, was to expand and make a name for their age in a glorious war. If there was no external enemy, they would seek to fix problems in their own society rather than turning outwards. This resulted in civil unrest, annoying protests, and class and generational strife. To combat this, this Xylan agreed to simply have less offspring. Additionally, the Xylan invested heavily in technology to greatly extend their life spans unnaturally via gene splicing and cybernetics. In all, they evolved into a fiercely conservative technocracy.

However, there was one final threat that they predicted facing, and that was an unexpected species quickly advancing in technological knowledge faster than predicted. To counter outliers like this thus guaranteeing their species eternal immortality, the Xylan continued to experiment on creating the most varied and efficient superweapons possible, their end goal being the creation of an unstoppable and fully autonomous droid army. Alone, for thousands of years, they developed this technology while the Republic was in its infancy.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: Maybe I can finally finish this thing now.**_


	33. Ch 33: A Cancer in the Force

A Cancer in the Force

It is a well known fact that the region of space known as the Corporate Sector has almost no indigenous sentient species. According to an old spacer legend, it is because the Corporate Sector Authority in ancient times massacred all native populations for that they didn't have to follow the terribly costly and bothersome Unknown Alien Encounters Orders that the Old Republic put in place to protect and study unknown sentient species. However, this is a tall tale. While several atrocities happened under the 'supervision' of the Corporate Sector Authority, there was no systematic genocide against native peoples.

While no scientist believes this rumor due to historical records indicating the contrary, it is still a favorite legend among spacers and tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists- likely because they are not the type who likes big business. Some astro-xenoclimatoloists speculate that the reason for this inconsistency in the distribution of life is because of strange solar effects in the Corporate Sector. Their theory has something to do with solar neutrinos being slightly off, but it lacks sufficient empirical support. Some Jedi theorize that it is simply because the Force never chose to create life in those locations. This theory is somewhat plausible sounding to those who specialize in Force-based metaphysics. After all, Jedi scientists point out that there is little record of life evolving outside of the central Galaxy- although due to increasing evidence that this is not the case, even most Jedi are skeptical. Most non-Jedi scientists dismiss it out of hand as it sounds a bit too much like intelligent design for their liking.

However, the most plausible explanation for this phenomena is far more insidious. There is an increasing consensus among historians that it was the Xylan who were responsible. The Xylan devoted most of their efforts to creating and researching superweapons of terrifying power. These weapons needed to be tested. However, since the Xylan were very conservative and not expansionist, they were afraid to venture too far out of their own protective galactic bubble in fear of revealing their existence to other advanced societies that could oppose them. As a result, they decided to test these weapons on nearby primitive species.

Xylan Intelligence Experiments:

The Xylan knew that the only thing more deadly than an unknown superweapon capable of destroying entire populations was the same weapon controlled by an extremely competent commander. However, as they had little patience for war games and strategy, they delegates these operations to automated computer systems. These artificial intelligences were placed in command of their superweapons. The idea was to create a series of highly competent A.I. that could eventually reach such a level of complexity that they could become fully sentient the way organic beings are. To accomplish this, they set the A.I.s to kill off random populations of nearby planets in order to study sentient nature.

Droid A.I.s:

I believe it it necessary to talk about droid intelligences before proceeding as there is much misinformation surrounding the topic. In particular, there is the question of do droids have true sentience, and if so, should they have 'rights.'

The pre-Republic philosopher Plaristes famously wrote that droids are not and cannot have true sentience. He believed that what appeared to be sentience in the mind of a droid was really just a bundle of electrical impulses determined by preexisting programing. He believed that droids were perfectly determined and as such could not have free will nor any type of true mental experiences the way organic species do. For him, the thing that set true sentience apart was the presence of a 'nous' in the brain that could give the otherwise determined molecules in the brain a chance of freedom by manipulating quantum indeterminacy.

This 'nous' was a nexus in the Force that acted as the unifier between the individual and the 'universal soul' (the Force) which led to the possibility of transcending the physical and becoming unified with the One (existence as a whole). Droids were not connected to the Force as organics are and as such it is impossible for them to have a nous.

As much of Plaristes' philosophy was taken up by the Four Sages of Dwartii and later Shassium, whose political philosophies formed the ideological backbone of the Republic, Plaristes' beliefs have had an enormous influence on galactic culture- even if few are professed Plaristians anymore. As such, most consider droids to be nothing more than highly advanced machines.

Plaristes' philosophy has also been taken up by the Jedi and as such is generally held to be for the most part doctrinal, even if some doctrines have been edited out over the years. For example, while almost all Jedi believe in some type of nous, Plaristes held that the nous has complete universal knowledge from birth as it is always connected to the realm of the 'Plaristian Forms'- which sounds just as insane to Jedi as to non-Jedi. As to the role of the physical sciences, while the Force is an area outside of empirical verification most of the time, most physicists do refer to it, at least on a universal level, meaning that while the role of consciousness in the universe is, as it always was, a fuzzy area, most do acknowledge the existence of unique and unpredictable quantum patterns in the brain leading to a widespread acceptance of some form of this theory.

As for droids, there is some debate. On the one hand, there are those who believe that all droids are mindless machines who can only act according to their programing without any conscious experience. On the other, you have some who believe that all droids are equal to organic sentient species. However, the majority view is that Plaristes' view is correct, but only up to a point. Plaristes was right in believing that a nous is required for sentience, and as droids are not connected to the Force in the slightest, consciousness is impossible for them. However, most believe in what is known as _emerging sentience_. This view holds that droids are not sentient and are not alive, but that it is possible, if the droid becomes sufficiently advanced, to develop a form of true sentience.

At first, this view seemed absurd. They thought that surely a droid is either sentient or not and there is no way to change from non sentient to sentient. However, Jedi have reported discovering strange droids with a type of 'Force signature.' Of course, that's not to say that Force sensitive droids are possible. After all, a droid has no midichlorians or even living cells, and as a result, they are completely cut off from being able to draw on its energy. However, it is theorized that a type of nous could emerge in droid intelligences nonetheless, and that this consciousness could then continue to exist the same way that Jedi or Sith 'Force ghosts' are able to exist.

Needless to say, when this was first discovered, it created quite an uproar. However, it became possible to explain how sentience could fully emerge among inorganic matter. It is still unknown how exactly the droids have the potential for consciousness to emerge in them. The pervading view, verified by mapping quantum information patterns in droid computers, is that your average everyday droid is completely inanimate, that is to say, there is nobody 'looking back' or experiencing being embodied in it. However, it is possible for a sufficiently advanced A.I. to somehow become sentient. The exact process is still being investigated, but it is believed that the computer system must be sufficiently advanced and it must have enough data of performing various actions as a droid stored in it.

This should also not be confused with emerging sentience in animals. Animals have their own Force signature which separates them from inorganic matter. With droids, they are _completely_ inorganic until they somehow gain a true state of consciousness.

This would explain how most droids are mindless machines, but can develop unusual tendencies. A droid developing quirks is not uncommon, but these are not full sentience until some unknown process happens that 'sparks' conscious experience. According to folklore, the easiest way to tell if a droid is sentient or not is to ask it to identify the truth value of the statement 'this sentence is false,' if the droid blows up, it's non sentient, but if it insults you, it's sentient.

Throughout history, there have been many droids who have claimed to have been sentient. Some of the more infamous ones are HK-01 and IG-88 who both wanted to provoke a 'droid uprising.' However, not all were hostile.

The Reapers:

The Xylan, while not believing in any type of Force interference, did believe that droids could become sentient. As a result, when creating A.I. units to command their superweapons in battle, they used the most advanced computing technology that they had and introduced these A.I. units to as many varied experiences as possible. Their goal was to find a way to develop a series of A.I. who could think in the same unpredictable manner as organics so that they could be fully adaptable and self sufficient.

To do this, they had the A.I.s operate the superweapons and command their droid armies. These were used to repeatedly annihilate native populations in random ways. This plan took a long time. For example, sometimes the droids visited their victims once every century, sometimes they invaded two or three times in a row, and sometimes they just waited even longer to let the population expand even more before killing it off again. To speed up the process, each A.I. unit was put in charge of multiple planets of varying degrees of technological advancement.

Additionally, they would attack the population in as many ways as possible. Often, they would invade with droid soldiers and other times a sustained orbital bombardment was sufficient. While this process was repeated over and over again, extensive data was taken. The droid A.I.s ran extensive mathematical psychoeconomic reports on the data to develop every facet of their victims psychology. In the end, it is believed that the Xylan succeeded and the droids became fully sentient. According to legend, their instinctual knowledge of psychology was so great that they could predict an opposing people's battle strategy just by studying their art.

This process took place over the course of close to fifteen millenia. When the process was complete, the droids were ordered to wipe out all life to hide the results of their experiments. The combined death toll through all fifteen millenia is horrifying. According to most estimates, as many as ten _trillion_ beings were killed. For comparison, that's as much as the top ten most heavily populated planets in the Galaxy all wiped out in an instant or ten Coruscants worth if sentient beings- _and that's terrible!_

Xylan Society:

In the early days of the Xylan, that is to say not long after the fall of the Rakata, they were like most other species. While their population was still relatively small compared to the populations of most space faring species, they did spread to many planets with each one having a decent sized colony. However, as the centuries turned into millenia, their research into extending life was perfected. Once that became widespread, their population began to shrink. For comparison, around 22,000 BBY, the Xylan had a population in the tens of billions. However, circa. 17,000 BBY, it had shrunk to only a few tens of millions.

Their outlook on life was as mechanistic as their work. They believed that the minds of sentient beings were completely determined by the chance combinations of brain tissue and the random fluctuations in it. Furthermore, they believed that every conscious experience was unique. This followed from their random worldview of the mind. The brain mechanically produced sensation after sensation, but there was no underlying constant other than memories, which were fickle and subject to change. As a result, they had little sense of personal identity as there was no underlying identity behind the random combinations of consciousness. Because of this, they believed that when a conscious being died, conscious experiences would simply cease to occur and all the information contained in the mind would be lost with no way to back it up.

This influenced their species morality. As they believed that every mental experience was unique with no underlying self, they had no problem with killing their experimental species. After all, if every conscious experience was unique, there is no continuity from one day to the next, and each individual would be its own thing from each day to the next. They believed that the present and past had no more in common than one person and another. As a result, killing a lesser species was no more wrong than preventing it from having children- which they saw as a blessing. They saw it not as killing or as putting them out of their misery, but as simply saving future generations of 'selves' from having to suffer through life- all in the name of science.

However, they seemed to have a paradoxical fear of their own deaths. They saw their own deaths as the end of all future conscious experiences, and while this didn't logically scare them, they still seemed to have some type of phobia of it, although another possibility is that they were simply afraid of not being around long enough to finish up all their projects in life. This was one of the things that gave them the impetus to develop life-extending technology. Eventually, by around 18,000 BBY, their technology had developed enough to extend their life spans from around 100 year to over 1,000 years.

This, of course, came with huge social adjustments. For one thing, since most manual labor was done by machine, there was little for the highly intelligent Xylan to do. As a result, they simply had less and less children. This became less of a problem as they aged past their natural life spans as after about a hundred years, one would simply lose the ability to reproduce. Most Xylan in life devoted themselves to their technical work.

Demise of the Xylan:

As their work neared closer and closer to its completion, the Xylan realized that their species was becoming extinct. There were less than a million left and almost none still possessed the ability to reproduce. Rather than see this as a bad thing, they saw it as a blessing. After all, they saw death as inevitable and as a thing to be feared- at least from their own subjective point of view, so why make future generation suffer the same thing? No matter how good they lived their lives, death would come for each and every one in the end. Furthermore, life was far from being 'good.' As every Xylan was surrounded by technological marvels, they saw themselves as the most privileged species in existence. Everybody else had to struggle and fight just to stay alive- which they saw as a bad thing. They could not comprehend how these lesser species could go on.

As a result, instead of just committing themselves to extinction and saving everyone else the hassle, they had to turn their existential dread upon everyone else. Not wanting their superweapons to go to waste, they decided to share the 'blessing' of extinction with everyone else. They saw life as a fundamental imbalance in the universe, as it produced far more bad than good. This, combined with the infinite 'bad' of death came inevitably when none of this bad stuff even had to exist. As a result, by wiping out all life in the universe they were just doing everyone a favor by making all the bad equal to the good at exactly zero for each- perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

This is the possible death of the Force that Pall felt. Had their plan succeeded, their machines would have spread out exterminating all life in the galaxy. It seems that the universe has a sense of humor, for sure enough, Pall did drive off this invasion but only in the most indirect and luckiest way possible.


	34. Ch 34: Droid Warfare

Droid Warfare

When the Xylan as a species finally vanished, their technological terrors remained. These A.I.s were loyal to their programing but could think and act in ways atypical of normal droids as they possessed full sentience.

Xylan Weapons:

The main force of the Xylan military was its incredibly fast and powerful navy. These ships became known as the Eternal Fleet as the plan was to have them always on standby even after all life had been wiped out.

Their sizes and power output are simply awe inspiring- at least for the time. To get a sense of the size of the standard warship unit it is best to compare them to more modern warships of comparable power.

Each ship was almost a kilometer long. Each ship had a long and cylindrical body but oddly enough, they had large towers jutting out from the front. These front towers together were nearly equal to the very length of the ship. The reasons for their existence are obscure, but it is likely part of the design to house a large cloaking array. Apparently, a pitch-black cloaking field would surround the ship, but two points at the end would stay outside of the cloaking field to steer it. These sensors had their own cloaking methods, but were still transparent enough to see. Therefore, the bulk of the ship could stay concealed while the tips of these towers provided a large field of vision for each ship. Additionally, most of the ship's weapons were located on the towers. The reason for this being that they were designed to be ambush ships. With most of the armament on the front, they could lay a heavy field of fire before retreating again. The same general principle of maximizing the surface area to weaponry ratio was used on the _Hammerhead_ class cruisers famously used during the Old Republic and Rebellion eras.

The total output of these weapons were roughly equal to the Clone Wars era _Victory I_ class star destroyers. While the output of a _Victory I_ is meger compared to Imperial and even contemporary star destroyers, they are still dangerous warships- especially in comparison with warships during the Hundred Year Darkness. Additionally, unlike the _Victory I_ class star destroyers, they were not designed for heavy ship-to-ship combat. Instead, they were designed for hit and fade attacks- hence their cloaking shields and full frontal assault weaponry.

Perhaps their most deadly weapon was their hyperdrive engines. Each ship had a hyperdrive class rating of (0.6). By comparison, the famous _Millenium Falcon_ had a class of (0.5). Most modern warships have hyperdrive classes no greater than (1.0), but during the Clone Wars the _Acclamator_ class assault ship had a standard hyperdrive rating of (0.75) but with hyperdrive boosters they could accelerate to (0.6). Additionally, ship in the Eternal Fleet was equipped with specialized computers which could calculate the entrance speed and momentum needed to minimize Cronau radiation. As a result, they could slip into a system undetected and wreck havoc before quickly fading away.

The Eternal Fleet's army was mainly used to support the Fleet itself rather than as active agents in combat. The army was composed entirely of almost the same model of droid. These droids were called Skytroopers. They were relatively easy to manufacture with the technology of Iokath. Each droid was equipped with a blaster rifle and a repulsor-pack and steering fins so that it could maneuver in the air. These droids were dropped from specialized dropships where they would then hover down and take control of specific locations on a planet. Very rarely were large scale armies called for as the Eternal Fleet had little reason to launch ground campaigns. However, on the rare occasion that larger operations were required, the fleet would send down walkers to serve as heavy artillery to minimize loss of droids.

One reason that Skytroopers were rarely needed is because once the orbiting planetary defenses were wiped out, the Fleet would blockade the planet with their massive Star Fortresses. These were large space stations designed to prevent things from escaping the planet. They would simply be parked in orbit while their patrol craft would circle the captured world. Skytroopers would occasionally be sent down to put down resistance movements. Their offensive and defensive capacities were not too great, but they usually didn't need to defend the planet as each captured world already had its defenses taken down.

Each Star Fortress was powered by a small hypermatter fusion core. Oddly, this core was open revealing the self sustaining fusion reaction. This was a common design for Xylan fusion reactors. They were very powerful but slightly more unstable than regular fusion reactors. As such, they were often built next to bodies of water so that they could be drowned in the river. Often, the safety mechanism consisted of a sentient eight armed droid that could raise and lower the fusion reaction into the waters to shut it down. However, in space, the plasma was often simply vented. This could be used as an offensive attack. If a large rebellion sprang up on a planet, the Star Fortress could simply rev up its fryers to full power before ejecting the star at the planet. The fusion reaction would continue to be stable for a few minutes as it drifted down before exploding in a fifty megaton blast.

All of these resources would be controlled by the A.I. systems. And if that's not enough, none of these are even the superweapons designed to actually kill all life on each planet. These weapons were often kept in reserve and only used on the most dangerous planets after all defenses fell as the superweapons themselves were designed for destroying planets rather than sustained space warfare.

Superweapons:

The actual superweapons intended to wipe out all life in the galaxy came in many forms, but there were two main types: the gravity weapons and the superlaser weapons.

Gravity based weapons were usually attempts to recreate Celestial Cosmic Turbines. They were very large, sometimes as large as a large moon. They had a large hollow core that contained the equipment needed to focus gravitational waves, but the core also housed a large fusion reactor that powered the continual waves. These waves were then focused on the station's intended target. They could usually destroy a planet in two ways. First, they could fire all stored potential energy at once thus shattering its core. However, this would leave behind a rocky planetoid rather than a field of rubble. A second way would be to pair up with another station and focus on building up pressure in the core by slowly pulling and pushing the planet with gravity. However, while this would cause cataclysmic natural disasters, it was not sufficient to destroy the planet.

A more direct approach was superlaser based weapons. These were often smaller, about the size of a large asteroid. They had used Gravatic Polarization Beams to focus hypermatter into a beam which was sent on a path into the core of a planet. However, these beams were usually not powerful enough to completely destroy a planet, rather they left the surface a molten heap of slag thanks to the powerful volcanic shockwave.

In order to accommodate for these limitations, the Xylan designed a planetary destruction to be a multiple step process. First, the gravitic weapons would orbit the planet building up pressure in the core. Then three to five, or even sometimes seven depending upon the density of the planet, of the superlaser weapons would fire simultaneously. The hypermatter reaction would build up in the core and the planet would be shattered with the shards being flung by the rouge gravity wells in multiple directions. All this done to eliminate any possibility of life coming back. The entire process would be monitored by super intelligent droids.

As can be imagined, this process took an insane amount of energy- far more than fusion alone could provide for. Instead, these reactors used a much more powerful version of the hypermatter fusion model common in their smaller ships. This reactor would fuse hydrogen to create helium, then the helium would be annihilated by the hypermatter reaction. To keep these reactions going, these superweapons would travel with huge teams of harvester droids. These droids would harvest hydrogen from the depths of space to feed the space stations. Additionally, occasional mining colonies would be setup to harvest more massive elements such as Uranium or hyperbarides to seed the hypermatter reaction.

The Solution to All of Life's Problems:

This process was very lengthy. As a result, even if the annihilation got going, it would take a very long time to spread across the entire galaxy. As a result, the plan, ironically dubbed the Solution to All of Life's Problems, was implemented in stages.

In the first stage, the Eternal Fleet would blitz the Galaxy with a series of surprise attacks. Despite their massive technological superiority, numbers, and the raw power of each warship, they could not simply take over the Republic without a long and drawn out fight. Due to the non expansionist nature of the Xylan, the Fleet would have very few resources to replenish destroyed forces. As a result, they would have to perform a series of fast and quick strikes to target the Galaxy's weak points- similar to Pall's Star Forge Strategy. However, it is likely that due to the overall competence and efficiency of the droid commanders, the odds would have been in their favor.

This would be designed to weaken infrastructure and take down all space based defenses. The idea would be to pretend as if they were some type of normal invading force that wanted to rule the Galaxy. Then, when the most dangerous planets were under their control, they would wipe these planets out quickly and efficiently. This would also be in two stages. First, the planet would be quickly fired upon by a superlaser to kill off most of the native population, and only later when the rest of surrounding space is secure would the planet itself be demolished. If this actually happened, it is likely that Coruscant, Alsakan, Anaxes, and other core worlds would be the first to go. Kilometers of steel and permacrete would come crashing down with ash and lava taking their place. This would have been designed to cripple and galactic economy and eliminate the center of government. Without these planets in place, the Galaxy would fall into anarchy.

After this preliminary stage, the droid generals would analyze the data with psychoeconomic principles before planning the next stage. They would then systematically target the strongest centers of government that pop up in the next few years while their superweapons would annihilate planet after planet.

The planets would be destroyed based off their importance. First, the superweapons would be used one at a time on most locations that have a possibility of starting a rebellion that could spread. Then, the most dangerous planets would be picked off one by one. Then, the droids would hunt down and keep following any movements of people who seek to survive the great extinction. Once the entire galaxy was reduced to a pre-spacefaring society, they droids would take their time and eliminate each planet one after the other until no planet can support sentient life.

But they wouldn't stop there. A large force would then be sent to explore possible satellite galaxies to continue the process. The remaining droids would then proceed to annihilate any planet that had life to begin with to prevent it from becoming sentient. After this, they would turn to a lengthy campaign to blast any rock that even had the _potential_ of life into dust all the while looking for anything else to kill. And after a million years, any droid that did not go completely insane, or rather even more completely insane, would look out across an empty and lifeless galaxy.

Needless to say, this is a very long term plan. It is thought that even the first phase of their plan, that is wiping out all major points of sentient life, would take ten thousand years. The droids did have the ability to adapt and construct more weapons and ships using Iokath and other much smaller facilities, and while these would cause the rate of expansion to steadily increase, it wouldn't be an exponential increase unless significantly more facilities were built, and given the level of sophistication of their technology, that would take time.

Why this didn't happen:

The Xylan went extinct sometime between 12,000 and 10,000 BBY, long before the Hundred Year Darkness. It is unknown how the Pius Dea or Jedi controlled Republic would have responded to such an enemy, but that is a question for alternate history novelists. What is known is that the droids had conducted extensive psychological studies on the Galaxy up to this point. It is believed that the sudden and rapid changes in alliances during this era were one of the main reasons why the Eternal Forces held back as they wanted a more complete psychological profile. However, it was this snooping that got them into trouble.

Another race of incredibly advanced sentient droids had taken notice of these investigations. They are known as the Silentium.

The Iokath-Silentium War:

The history of the Silentium, that is where they came from and what did they do, would be far too long to fit here as they have a habit of popping up at the most unexpected times in the midsts of the strangest galactic events. To make a long story short, they are a race of large sentient droids who lurk out in the Unknown Regions. They usually don't get involved with Galactic going ons, and the last time that they came to the attention of the Galaxy at large was during the Hidden War in 50 ABY when they were almost destroyed by Chiss forces. However, while mostly harmless, they don't take kindly to other rouge A.I.s in the Galaxy. For unknown reasons, they grow incredibly hostile around other fully sentient droids and when these droids seem to be multiplying, they step in to annihilate any trace of them.

When the large and technologically advanced Silentium found out about the Eternal Forces and Iokath, they became enraged and attacked. The war was long, brutal, and wore down both species. However, the clear winners were were the Eternal Forces. The Silentium were more than capable of fighting, but they were even less prepared for a long term war than the Eternal Forces were. As a result, they species survived the war but only barely. The only reason that the Eternal Forces didn't pursue them is because their own casualties were heavy as well.

The Eternal Forces were not prepared to attack a race of droids. They had been studying the behavior of organics and as a result when faced with a completely alien droid race, they made several mistakes. To rebuild, Iokath was set to construct new resources to repair their superweapons while the droid A.I.s went dormant. This process continued for thousands of years as the lesser A.I.s and automatons continued to repair. The war itself went unnoticed by the Galaxy at large until historians discovered the remains thousands of years later when they found out just how close the Galaxy had come to annihilation.

This is the state that Tulak Hord found them in when his fleet discovered their remains and awakened them.


	35. Ch 35: Creative Synthesis

Creative Synthesis

Tulak Hord never made it to Iokath. In fact, he never made it anywhere close to that system. However, he still found the remains of several ancient Xylan-created droids floating out in a cold and empty system well beyond the edge of known space. It is unknown where exactly this point of contact was, as it was obviously not yet mapped and Hord's own records are sparse, but the legends of this discovery inspired later generations of Sith Lords to pursue finding these enigmatic beings, most notably the Sith Emperor Vitiate who found them over three thousand years later.

Hord entered the system circa. 6,902 BBY. The system had a small star and several rocky planetoids and asteroids with a large cloud of comets. It was another normal boring relay jump. Due to the dangers of hyperspace travel in the Unknown Regions, the small fleet had to take it slow and make careful notes on the condition of every major gravity well before taking off into hyperspace. Hord and other Dark Jedi would often use their precognitive abilities to find stable routes, but it was not very reliable.

On this particular hyperspace relay jump, the crew detected a strange gravitiational anomaly. There was a large planetoid nearby but according to gravitational scanners, the world had a very low mass- as if it were hollow. Additionally, the world was radiating a noticeable amount of heat radiation, as if there were geothermal or nuclear activity in the hollow core. Hord was alerted. At first he scoffed and told everyone to stop playing around and get back on track. To him, a slight disturbance was nothing to get all worked up about. However, as the engineers kept telling him that this was highly unusual, he became curious.

In his ship logs, Hord wrote that while out in the depths of the unknown regions, he was searching for any further remains of the ancient Rakatan civilization. He was fascinated by the Star Forge's wonderous technology and its connection to his homeworld. Specifically, he was looking for anything related to them in the hopes that they would have left behind vast troves of alchemical wisdom or advanced technology that could be used to his advantage.

The more he thought about it, the stranger such a gravitational reading sounded. He debated with himself over what to do. On the one hand, the ship did have pretty poor quality scanners and it was probably nothing, but then again, he didn't know the first thing about how gravity manipulation technology worked so if it baffled his engineers, he should check it out. Plus, the trip was very long and very boring. He was getting sick of sitting around in the ship week after week. In the end he decided to lead the expedition to the surface.

According to his sparse logs, the world upon closer inspection seemed to be made completely out of some type of metal. The surface was battered from micrometeors and other debris but on the whole the outside appeared to have a rough but unnatural feel- as if it were just a front. He entered the strange object through what looked to be a gaping chasm. The ships scanners recorded that the walls appeared even more unnatural from the inside. Huge metal pipes and beams ran along their length and the whole thing had the look of a massive tube, like some type of gun barrel.

When he reached the end, there was a series of large reflectors, but something was off. These reflectors appeared to be constantly shifting without moving an inch. Space itself seemed to bend into strange alien geometries, although it could have been a trick of the light. Still though, the overall gravity seemed off. A powerful light seemed to be in the distance, shining from behind an even bigger reflector. The ship was dwarfed by comparison and they easily slipped around to emerge in a large hollow sphere.

Sure enough, the planet was hollow and in the center was a dim red orb like a blazing ember. For hours, the ship slowly orbited the red ember scanning the interior and making careful notes. Even Hord was speechless and struck with awe at what they were seeing. In the end, the crew decided to report back. The small craft flew out back down the same corridor.

The rest of the scientists and engineers were awestruck at the discovery. They wanted to stay and launch a lengthy investigation on the sphere. Hord granted their request as he was just as interested in it as they were, although for different reasons.

The ship stayed parked in orbit around the planetoid for weeks as crews explored the surface and its interior corridors. Some of the higher ups remarked upon the similarities it bore to the massive Star Forge. Others, who were Corellians, remarked that it appeared to be similar to the ancient construct known as Centerpoint Station in the Corellian system. As they mapped the interior, they concluded that it was some type of gravity manipulation device. More importantly, it appeared that it had some sort of central command computer.

The sphere sent out gravitational pulses at odd intervals. These were not powerful enough to be felt except by the sensors, but they appeared to be too ordered to be random. Some got the idea that maybe it communicated in gravitational bursts and thought that they could try to make contact. After a few weeks, a repulsor was set up on the surface to emit and detect pulses. This emitter sent out a series of simple binary codes.

After a few hours, the sphere did seem to register the presence of the strangers as it emitted a code in response. After a few more hours, the energy in the core seemed to flare up. However, after a day the sphere seemed to panic. Several blasts of radiation came from its scanners, and it released a long string of gravitational bursts before coming to life. The energy in the core flared up and with a sudden jolt, the sphere disappeared into hyperspace.

The scientists were astonished and the code was passed onto a team of codebreakers. After a few hours, they were able to match up the patterns and decipher some type of meaning. It was difficult to make out exactly what it said, but it seemed to be a name, a number, and a short message. The crew panicked. It is unknown what the code said as the data was deleted from the file memory.

A quick but urgent relay droid was sent bearing a message to known space. However, Hord did not want to let the sphere get away. He tracked the hyperspace vector and was able to follow it further and further into the unknown regions. The chase lasted for months. Whenever it seemed that one of his scout ships had been able to track the sphere down, it would jump again. When he finally caught up to it, it was hiding out in yet another unknown system. However, in this system, there seemed to be multiple spheres and a few other vessels of various sizes waiting there.

They were clustered around the edges of the system. These massive vessels of various shapes and sizes just waited there. They seemed to be communicating, but they seemed to be unaware of the fact that their pursuers had arrived. However, after a few hours, they seemed to detect the scanners from the Dark Jedi ships. Again, they seemed to panic. Without warning, one of the mysterious vessels fired a powerful laser blast in their direction. It didn't come close to hitting their ships instead hitting a large nearby asteroid. This created a plane of debris preventing them from getting closer. The spheres then panicked and jumped away again.

At this point, they were so far into the Unknown Regions that they feared going further would lead to them being locked inside a hyperspace maze. It was simply too risky to continue. However, to keep a watch out for the strange spheres, Hord left a series of mobile probes to scan and patrol the area. These probes would send back a message if the spheres ever came back.

After this, they began the long trek back to known space. After a few months, they reached a far out rendezvous point where a message was waiting from the Dark Jedi high command. It told him not to venture too deeply into unknown space and not to attack any unknown entities, but to just patrol the area and wait.

The Departure:

Reconstructing what happened to the droid superweapons has been a challenge, but many historians who specialize in the area have been able to construct a plausible picture of what happened.

Apparently, the superweapon A.I.s were coming awake one by one, each at a slightly different time. They had originally planned to find Iokath, the Eternal Fleet, and its droid overlords so that they could continue their mission. However, they were confused as to what was happening in the Galaxy. Their probes indicated that there was some type of war going on so they decided to wait and see how it played out. Now at this stage, it is important to remember that only about half of the superweapons were operational and only a fraction of them were in communication with the others. As a result, these were simply the ones that had awakened first.

They wanted to see what would happen so that they could strike when the Galaxy was weakest. After all, if they invaded during an economic high generated by the war, they would likely be repulsed and destroyed. However, if they invaded during a depression or slump generated by the destruction or disenfranchisement of the Galactic citizens, they would have a chance.

However, the longer their probes watched in secret, the more uncertain they became. They detected a fleet of black ships with markings very similar to those of the Rakatan Infinite Empire ships. They became worried as they feared that the Rakata, the only species that their masters feared, could be back. Suddenly, a previously unaccounted for gravitational superweapon contacted them with an urgent message. Some of the black ships had found and were pursuing it!

This message was quickly related to all known units with messages being sent to the likely locations of any unaccounted for units. The fleet panicked and sent out a distress code to all listening A.I. superweapons. The emergency protocol was in the event of their premature discovery to avoid returning to Iokath at all costs. The A.I.s believed that they were being pursued. They were not warriors and so they would have a hard time fighting an invading force without the Eternal Fleet to back them up as they were built for controlled demolitions, not warfare. All active superweapons jumped into hyperspace along escape vectors heading past the depths of the unknown regions and towards the edge of the Galaxy.

It is thought that by 6,900 BBY they had all gathered and were making their way past the edge and into the Intergalactic Void. Where were they heading and what was their final fate remains unknown. There have been a few reports over the years of strange sightings of vessels similar to their design or to strange spheres being found, but in the end they were simply never heard from again. Whether they were destroyed or remain lurking beyond the rim remains to be seen.

Pall's Reaction:

When Pall received the message from Hord, he knew that the mysterious spheres had something to do with his visions. He immediately took an indefinite leave from the war effort to comb his records for anything that could be related to the discovery. His searches turned up mostly empty, but he was determined to drive off the invading threat. However, as time passed on, his visions became less and less severe. Rather than seeing the death of the Force, he saw life flourishing and the Force being set right.

For Pall, even though he commanded vast and powerful technological and biological terrors, this war was never about metal or flesh, but about the Force. On Lettow, he fought with the mystics over the correct doctrines of the Force but in time came to see these as meaningless nit-pickings as no one Order could claim absolute truth. On Tython, he experienced the Force open in its entirety and came to see it on a cosmic scale.

He saw the Force as not a static thing written about in the teachings of the Jedi, but as an ever increasing essence that permeated life and was deeply related to it. He saw the Jedi not as people, but as the static embodiment of the constant and unrestricted light side while the Dark Jedi were the opposite eroding away at this bedrock. These two forces had been locked in combat for over a hundred years ever since the prophet Ku'ar Danar had brought back his cursed teachings sparking the dialectic shift. However, instead of one or the other pervading and becoming stronger or a new synthesis forming, leading to the greater flourishing of life, they had remained in a state of stagnation and decay as life died.

Pall saw the monstrous spheres not as technological terrors but as the non living poised to exploit the decay in the Force. They represented a cancer, the inanimate threatening to destroy the animate- the ultimate failure of the Force. When Pall started the war, he believed that if he could recreate the Jedi Order from scratch, the Force would be set right and this cancer would somehow be avoided.

He saw himself as the only one capable of recognizing this threat and taking action, perhaps even being sent by the Force itself to do so. Ever since he was young, he recognized that he was different. Not only did his power far surpass the other Jedi initiatives, but he could see through their lies. Perhaps, he thought, he was an avatar of the Force that the sages of Lettow prophesied about. As such, by committing acts of horrible evil, his actions would ultimately be vindicated as being the will of the Force.

For the last four years, ever since the war turned, he believed himself to be a failure. He had been unable to recreate the Jedi Order and prevent various corrupted Dark Side sects from spreading, all the while, the visions remained. However, now he saw things clearly. He did not have to win, all he had to do was fight. His struggle would collect together the scattered remains of the dark side and ultimately force the Jedi to confront its own problems and become better for it.

He had been the fire to finally burn out the decay. The Galactic economy was once again awakened and patriotism in the Republic was high meaning they they could combat most any external threat- should it come back. He had introduced new technological developments into galactic society stimulating research. And most importantly from his point of view, the Jedi would have to finally adapt. The cancer in the Force was fading.

However, at the end of the day, he was still leading a doomed movement plagued more and more by infighting and insubordination. Perhaps now, with the blood of billions on his frail hands, it was time for it to end.


	36. Ch 36: Fragmentation

Fragmentation

A series of rebellions plagued the Black Legions in the ninth year of the war. As the Republic swallowed up more and more space, systems left the confederation and submitted themselves to the yoke of the Republic while others used the opportunity to sue for some form of sovereignty.

At this stage, one of the pressing concerns of the Dark Jedi was the Star Forge itself. Throughout the war, they kept its location a tightly guarded secret. This secret was easy to keep as they controlled all hyperlanes leading to and from it, but as the Republic expanded, these lanes fell into enemy hands. At this point, the only real defense the Star Forge had was its location in the Unknown Regions. Although the Republic controlled the bases of these hyperspace routes, they could not head inwards into the Unknown Regions as they did not know how to safely navigate these regions.

However, one of the Star Forge's greatest vulnerabilities was its hyperspace beacon. Remember, in this era hyperspace navicomputers with the preset data and computing power necessary to calculate hyperspace routes was not reliable or common. As a result, almost everybody, including military vessels, used hyperspace beacons to navigate. These beacons emitted pulses of hyperwaves or subspace waves that could be picked up by nearby ships. The ships computers would then use the data transmitted, the doppler effect, and any data gained from gravitational interference to triangulate the location of the beacon and the safest route to and from. These beacons could of course be tampered with, and many times in history enemy fleets were bamboozled when the enemy messed with a seemingly stable hyperspace beacon, but in order to be used by one side, it had to transmit accurate information, which could also be used by the enemy.

Now to get to the Star Forge, a beacon was necessary. Although Republic codebreakers did not know its exact location, their listening devices could pick up faint signals originating from the Unknown Regions. This, in itself, was not uncommon, after all, many expeditions were launched over the years with the goal of putting a beacon in orbit around an unknown star, so it makes sense that these lost beacons would give off a steady background, but as the Republic knew that the Black Legions were being supplied by a huge shipyard in the Unknown Regions, they were checking every set of coordinates they could find.

Simply destroying the beacon and programming the location of the Star Forge into every ship was also not an option. The coordinates to the Star Forge and the paths leading to and from it were highly classified. Only the very top Dark Jedi had access to them. Any copying of the codes was punishable by death due to the fear that they would fall into Republic hands. As a result, the beacon had to be used, but it was used only at select times.

The Republic did not know what this mysterious source of ships was, in fact, very few of the Black Legion soldiers and even officers knew anything about it either. The whole operation was highly classified due to the danger of its being discovered. Many thought that it was a large shipyard, but a shipyard that large in the Unknown Regions was unheard of. After all, the output of ships and weapons was enough to rival the productive outputs of even Kuat and Anaxes, yet there was no mention of this mysterious shipyard in any reliable star chart.

Most people believed that the Black Legions were in league with a powerful and technologically advanced but small alien territory. This would explain the ship designs and the advanced weaponry that they possessed. Such small and frighteningly advanced nation states while rare were not unheard of. The technological level of the Republic was, in general, higher than most others, but there were some exceptions.

One of the most famous incidents of a small but advanced nation state becoming a threat was the Waymancy Storm. The Storm occurred almost about nine hundred years previously when the Waymancy Hollow, a confederation centered around the planet Waymancy, came into conflict with the Republic. Their soldiers used pulse-wave weapons that were far more advanced than the ones that the Republic used, but even worse were their ships. Their ships possessed turbolasers that were far more powerful and faster than that of comparable Republic weapons, and their shields were much stronger as well. For comparison, these turbolasers were on par with those of the Vong War era Hapan Battle Dragon's while the shields were slightly less powerful than those of a Golan I defense station. Like the Black Legions, they attacked when the Republic was weak, but they did not anticipate that their actions would cause the Republic's massive industrial base to become active, thereby allowing the Republic to match them with sheer numbers until they could reverse-engineer their technology.

Many historians estimate that if the Waymancy Hollow had formed a larger confederation of outer rim worlds thereby allowing them to mass produce their advanced technology, they could have overran the Republic, or at least had been a much larger threat. Much the same had happened in the beginning of the War of Darkness, but now with both sides using comparable technology and a massive industrial imbalance, a Republic victory was imminent.

The Mutiny:

Since the Black Legions had to turn off the hyperspace beacon to the Star Forge for long periods of time, someone had to be left in charge. Usually, a small group of overseers would be left behind to run the station. They were given specific instructions of what to do and not to do, but on the whole it wasn't much due to the fact that the factory was mostly automated. The people put in charge were of many different backgrounds consisting of the most trusted military officers, but, of course, even the most loyal officers can mutiny- especially when their cause appeared to be hopeless and they had to stay in an evil factory all the time.

Perhaps that's the one thing that the Dark Jedi high command underestimated, the seductive power of the dark side, specifically that of the Star Forge. The station was not completely autonomous. It was both a dark side artefact as well as a machine, and so it required a powerful operator or group of supervisors. Those controlling it had to take turns operating the dark side infused machinery as the power had to flow through their bodies. This process, while not exactly painful in the usual sense, had a corrosive effect upon the mental sanity of its victims. Already they were Jedi who had embraced the dark side, and now the machine was amplifying their inner darkness for the sake of the war. With the sorry state of the war and the rebellions breaking out every day, it was only a matter of time until they decided to mutiny as well.

The names of the rebellious Dark Jedi have been lost to history as their data was expunged by the Dark Jedi high command afterwards. They mutinied in the first month of the ninth year of the war. As they were very few living beings present on the Star Forge, it was easy to take control of the station. Historians think that their plan was to form an independent city state in the Unknown Regions separate from both the Black Legions and the Republic, but we can never be sure.

The mutiny was put down quickly. As soon as the overseers failed to signal the beacon at the appropriate time, the high command became suspicious. Pall himself was alerted and he ordered a small group of Dark Jedi to join him to personally investigate the matter. Pall and his followers jumped into the system and immediately flew their ship into the Star Forge master docking bay. The rebels, who thought that nobody would be able to access the Star Forge without the beacon, were taken off guard. The Dark Jedi strike team quickly killed the rebels in the high command room and Pall proceeded to take back control of the station himself. Meanwhile, he sent his followers deep into the factory to hunt down any remaining rebels.

It is unclear exactly what happened next, but given the clues left in Pall's journals, it is possible to piece together a scenario. The official report has been lost and all historians have are indirect testimonies of the other Dark Jedi leaders who were not present. This conflict was the last time that the Dark Jedi were in control of the Star Forge, and we know that Pall wanted the war to end. Pall told them that the rebels had inflicted such damage on the station that the beacon was destroyed, but the other Dark Jedi didn't believe him, or at least they did not believe the whole story. They suspected that something happened there that Pall did not want to come to light. However, the actual explanation is likely a lot simpler. Once in control of the space station, Pall likely ordered the droid soldiers to kill everyone in the Star Forge and to inflict damage upon its internal machinery.

Why would he do this? Pall, and really the rest of the High Command, could see that the war, at this point, was unwinnable, and yet they couldn't just stop due to the momentum of both the Republic and their own forces. Similarly, rebellions were breaking out every day and with the corruptive influence of the Star Forge, keeping it supervised would simply be more trouble than it was worth. Finally, with the advancing Republic line, its discovery would be just a matter of time. Pall did not want the Star Forge to fall into the hands of the Republic, especially not the Jedi, so attempting to destroy it would be the best guarantee.

However, for some reason or another, Pall did not destroy the entire Star Forge. Perhaps the factory's defenses kicked into line and expelled him, or perhaps he had to leave quickly. Whatever happened, when Pall returned, he reported that the Star Forge had been badly damaged and the beacon destroyed. He furthermore wiped the coordinates from any records he could find and forbade anyone to go back and visit the remains.

This, of course, made his leadership all the more unpopular. The war was now entirely unwinnable, yet Pall did not seem to care. He spent most of his time in his study working on huge manuscripts and other writing projects.

In his journal, he writes that he had done everything he was sent to do. In his final years, he came to believe that he was really some type of prophet, sent by the Force for a specific end. Now that he was finished, he writes that the only thing he fears is that an assassin would take his life before he could write down his messages. Sure enough, this was a well founded concern. At this point, he was no longer the acting leader, and yet he was still, technically, the leader of the Black Legions. Many other Dark Jedi were not happy about this and numerous attempts on his life were made, none successful.

At this point, everyone else came to believe that he was simply insane. Despite these assassination attempts, many of the high command didn't mind his presence. After all, he was technically the leader and as such was the object of several plots and attempted coups, and yet, he let his subordinates control the entire movement- or what was left of it. It would simply not be a good long term career move for anyone else to take his place.

The war dragged on for another whole year, then on the first month of the tenth year it all ended at the Battle of Corbos.


	37. Ch 37: After Corbos

After Corbos

Corbos- a blasted hunk of weathered rock somewhere out in the Esstran sector, rich in minerals and ore, but even richer in history and hidden dangers. In a sense, the planet was always like that, as in 6950 BBY, it was mainly known as an out of the way mining outpost. But in another sense, the planet used to be completely different.

Originally, the planet had lush and verdant rainforests located in several craters and isolated sections of the planet. The planet's peculiar topology consisted of massive craters and vast deserts, but every now and again there would be a spot of life. It is unknown what caused these patches of life as it is difficult to discover any relevant facts about the ecosystem of a planet as it was 7,000 years ago- and even more difficult to convince anyone to fund such an exploration. The pains of archeology. But what we can tell is that once upon a time, the planet had a viable ecosystem. Not only were there small rainforests, but the deserts were full of massive ancient sandworms and strange reptilian species, very few of which survive to this day.

It is thought that what originally caused the environmental destruction at Corbos was a series of mining operations set up circa. 6,980 BBY. Due to the constant wars and economic hardships, the Republic and the Separatist states needed ore, and nobody really cared if environmental corners had to be cut. This resulted in a near total destruction of the native rainforests due to strip mining and the pollution caused by runoff.

Fast forward eighty years and the planet is now one of the last strongholds of the Dark Jedi forces. They were being besieged on all sides both by the Jedi and the Republic, but also by traitorous legions who had sold their allegiance to the Republic in exchange for clemency. Corbos makes a strange location for a final battle. Up until that point, it remained an obscure planet with very little significance. Instead, it winded up as the location for the last stand of the Dark Jedi by mostly accident.

As the Black Legions were plagued by infighting and with the Republic bearing down on them, many systems were cut off as they retreated further and further out. Corbos, whose mines had fallen under the control of the Black Legions, was originally chosen as a temporary stop for the fleet. However, Dark Jedi intelligence discovered that their former allies had betrayed them in neighboring sectors and were preparing an ambush thereby cutting off their escape route. With the Republic onslaught pressing in on one side and a trap on the other, they were stuck on a rock in between two very hard places.

They quickly fortified the planet, placing their ships in stationary defense orbits, and were determined to hold out. There was really no purpose in resisting. There was no possible way that they could even recover their lost territory at that point, but they knew that they would suffer traitors deaths if they surrendered, so at this point they really had nothing else to lose. Better to go down fighting on one's own terms, after all.

Republic ships emerged from hyperspace, pouncing on the Black Fleet whom they outnumbered three to one. The Republic navy admiral immediately commed the Dark Jedi high command and was greeted by the hologram of a skeletal Pall. The Jedi admiral demanded that they surrender their lightsabers and swords- a symbolic gesture of surrender.

Pall simply replied, "Come take them."

The Battle:

The Republic ships opened fire, but the Black ships held their orbits. However, due to the sheer firepower, the Republic was able to pry open a hole to send in landing troops. However, these were not ordinary troops, as rouge Dark Jedi were not the only dark allies that the Jedi had.

The Jedi had made an alliance with the mysterious cult known as the Guild of Vindicators. These Vindicators were an ancient group of Force users who were known to have had a deep and ancient hatred for all other Force users. They saw the Force as something that should not be used for the idle amusement of mortals- except for themselves, of course, as they saw themselves as carrying out the Force's vengeance. The Vindicators appear to be descended from Jedi themselves, although the ancient texts are unclear.

Apparently during the Pius Dea Era, a group of Jedi were created known as Jedi Vindicators. These Vindicators were tasked with hunting down Jedi rogues who had aligned themselves with the Pius Dea fanatics. However, once the war was over, the Vindicators were disbanded, or so that's what the Jedi wanted historians to believe. According to legend, the Vindicators had a schism with the Jedi Order and went underground. Eventually they themselves fell to the dark side, or at least resorted to practising some arcane and heretical arts in their quest to destroy their enemies. However, they never became a large and present threat.

During the Hundred Year Darkness, they were known as assassins who hunted both Jedi and Dark Jedi alike, and were known to have sided with any organization that suited them. Towards the end of the war, it seems that the Jedi grew so desperate for a quick end to the war that they were willing to bargain with these cultists.

Fortunately for the Jedi, these cultists seemed to have an even greater hatred for Pall personally than for the Jedi Order as a whole- and it is likely that the many assassination attempts Pall faced towards the end of his life was their handiwork. They apparently saw him as a type of false prophet, although, of course, when dealing with so little information it is hard to tell. They seemed to have regarded him as some type of prophesied Chosen One who was attracting followers to himself, potentially upsetting some sort of power balance, and therefore had to be killed before his corruption could spread. As a result, they allied themselves with the Jedi and were the first ones to land on Corbos when the orbital wall was pierced.

When the Jedi, Dark Jedi, Vindicators, and their soldiers landed, it was in the middle of the rainy season. They hiked through waist-deep mud in the remains of the rainforest, the planet's mutant trees providing cover from the scopes of enemy snipers. However, the forest was filled with the alchemical horrors created by the Dark Jedi. Howlers stalked them while Shamblers attached themselves like the parasites that they were. Many of the soldiers went mad and attacked the Vindicator allies in fear, causing the Jedi high command to lead the expedition with Force-users only.

The three groups slashed through the dense jungles and finally emerged next to the Dark Jedi citadel. The Jedi and Dark Jedi held off the guards in front as another team slipped inside to assassinate the leaders. What happened next is unclear. The most reliable reports were second hand testimonies that surfaced after the battle when the Jedi wrote down what the Dark Jedi told them.

Apparently, they broke into Pall's study. When they did so, he unleashed his Force powers on them, killing several instantly, but the Vindicators lashed out with a psychic attack. These Vindicators were specially trained to inflict fear and guilt in their victims. They knew how to dwell up unpleasant memories in their victims, memories of their crimes and evil deeds, thereby driving their victims to suicide.

Even with Pall's considerable telepathic power, he could not hold off their combined attack, especially in his state of mind. He fell to the ground screaming and pulled out a knife, driving it into his abdomen. As he lay on the ground bleeding, something strange happened. He was said to have glowed with a strange light as if the Force was drawing his body into itself. Then, the Vindicators psychic attacks seemed to turn against themselves as they clutched their heads and screamed in terror, then their bodies imploded, the flesh crushing and twisting into gruesome fountains. Pall collapsed into a Force-induced coma in which he remained until the battle was finished.

Oneness:

Unfortunately, Pall's diary stops the day before the battle. We have no records of how he felt or what he experienced. Even what little evidence we have comes from bewildered eyewitness testimony. As a result, perhaps it's risky to speak about such speculative matters, but given the context, this should be pointed out.

The phenomena of 'Oneness' or 'Being one with the Force in Life,' as opposed to becoming one with the Force upon death, is one of the most mysterious phenomena known to the Jedi. It is described as temporarily becoming the avatar of the Force itself. Witnesses to the phenomena say that the subjects undergoing this phenomena appear to be surrounded in a type of halo or aura and their eyes may turn white. Nobody knows quite why this happens, but Jedi have some competing theories, it's just too rare a phenomena to study. Famous Jedi who were able to embrace this phenomena were Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and Ganner Rhysode. During the Clone Wars, the reports are uncertain, but it is thought that Anakin Skywalker was able to achieve this state twice.

There is a related ability, called Force Enlightenment. This ability, famously practised by the Jedi Exile, Qui Gon Jinn, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Tholme Vos- among others, allows a Jedi to become empty and thereby to take in the Force becoming in a state where they no longer control their movements, allowing the Living Force to completely direct their actions. This is considered the ultimate state of Jedi detachment and surrender to the Will of the Force. It is partially a precognitive ability, but unlike most where the Jedi actively looks for and probes the Force for the future, they are open allowing the Force to simply show them the futures and having their body glide along. This state is considered to be one of the most powerful and respectful abilities a Jedi can have, but it is not the same as Oneness.

Another related phenomena is the amplification of precognition leading up to death. When a powerful Force-user is near death, the Force often shows many possible and far reaching futures. It is thought that this is a natural defense mechanism. Midichlorians serve as a bridge to the Force, and they naturally are in a symbiotic relationship with their host. Precognition is a way to preserve the host from death by scanning possible futures. Near death, the number of possible futures where the host can live is rapidly diminishing and so the midichlorians prepare to die and return to the Force. This gives their final acts of precognition a much more potent focus allowing the host to see much further. The most notable example of this phenomena is Darth Traya whom the Exile reports to have gave several far- reaching prophecies before her death.

A final phenomena worth considering is a precognitive burst. This phenomena seemingly occurs at massive crossroads or shatterpoints in the Force. It is much like a Force vision in that it is unexpected, but is different as it shows multiple possible futures instead of just one. Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo reported this ability on several occasions. Another reported vision was by the Emperor's Voice Scourge; he wrote that he experienced a vision of multiple possible futures prompting him to betray his allies.

Some think that Oneness is much like these phenomena. It is an opening to the Living Force, much like Force Enlightenment, as well as a precognitive vision triggered either unexpectedly or prompted by the nearness to death causing a massive connection to the Unifying Force. These together are said to allow a Jedi, or possibly Sith, to embrace the Force as a whole allowing them to become a perfect avatar for it.

Pall wrote about experiencing such a phenomena only once before- on the planet Tython when he had the vision that prompted him to begin his rebellion against the Jedi. This shows that Pall was able to achieve this state once, or at least he believed that he did, so perhaps these reports are accurate. Perhaps his nearness to death caused him to once again embrace the Force in its entirety.

The Aftermath:

After the assassins were killed, Pall stayed in his coma for the rest of the battle. When the Jedi command found out that their ploy failed, they decided to bargain with the besieged Dark Jedi. The deal was that if they surrender, the Republic and the Jedi would guarantee that they would live and not be executed. The Dark Jedi command in a state of desperation accepted this offer. The odds of any reinforcements arriving was slim, and there was no purpose in continued resistance. They were going to die on Corbos unless the deal was accepted.

Their ships parted and the Jedi command descended. The surviving Dark Jedi, including the comatose Pall, were taken aboard their flagship to be brought before a tribunal on Ossus. The deal upset many in the Republic military high command who wanted to put the traitors to death right then and there, but the Jedi were more prudent. They knew that if they made a huge show about sparing the lives of the Dark Jedi leaders, it would be much easier to convince smaller pockets of Dark Jedi to surrender. After all, if they broke their promise and executed the Dark Jedi, these small pockets would continue to hold out and fight to the death as they wouldn't trust any deal that the Republic would make.

The Jedi were determined to pass judgement upon the rebels themselves. Again, the military was upset, but after intense haggling the Jedi were given the authority. The trial, held in the Jedi Temple on Ossus, was short as everyone already knew the verdict going in. The Dark Jedi, including Pall, simply watched it all play out. The verdict was passed that the Dark Jedi would be exiled from known space, never to be seen again. Many of the Jedi wanted to sever their connections to the Force, but they decided against it. The war had killed many of the most powerful masters in the Order so that even the council was unsure if they were powerful enough to completely sever the Dark Jedi of their Force sensitivity.

Only a few days after the war officially ended, the Dark Jedi boarded a transport. The ship was rigged to perform a series of random jumps into unknown space until it found a habitable planet. It would then perform a controlled landing, and its hyperdrive would self-destruct preventing escape. To further guarantee their isolation, the ship departed into a region of space notoriously difficult to escape from: the Stygian Caldera.

In the years that followed, the Jedi continued to mop up dark Jedi cults and holdouts. Many surrendered, some even were accepted back into the Jedi Order once they renounced the dark side. The Republic offices of the President and Chancellor were more lenient than the military wanted them to be when it came to issuing pardons for the traitorous states and individuals. This prudence and the horror of the last war caused a reluctant acceptance among most people.

The states that wanted to break off had suffered such extensive damage that they were more than willing to accept Republic sponsored aid. The Jedi who had broken away for doctrinal differences had seen what horror the dark side led to and many of the more reasonable ones renounced using the Force entirely. There was a large 'hermit' movement where ex dark Jedi simply retired to random backwater planets to live in the wilderness, trying to find peace. Of course, not everything was rainbows and sunshine. There were some rather radical pockets who just wouldn't surrender. They were usually bombed into oblivion and their movement died out in the following decades. The Vindicators also got it, as they refused to accept the Jedi's terms of submission.

In the decades that followed, the Republic entered into a new golden age. Although after the war ended, systems were in massive debt to each other, the war had generated enough of an industrial impetus that the economy was able to bounce back. Since the Galaxy was peaceful, new hyperlanes connected far flung systems to each other further increasing trade. The economy expanded as refugees were able to find work along these star lanes. When veterans returned home, if they were lucky enough to still have a home, many decided to start a family now that their children could grow up in a safe galaxy. In the next two decades, this new generation was greeted by job opportunities along the new hyperlanes. The surging economy was tempered by Republic taxes which siphoned off money to rebuild damaged infrastructure and to support veterans. This led to a sense of hope, a sense that maybe all was well in the Galaxy as this new generation blazed new routes deeper into unknown space. Many even settled along these lanes on new agriworlds and frontier planets.

In short, all was well as the Republic celebrated a great peace. There were a few small conflicts, some with Dark Jedi, many without, but on the whole the were not of any great concern to the Galaxy at large. Perhaps this was a mistake, as there was a new enemy lurking in the shadows. Rebels and Dark Jedi holdouts were not the only threats to this great peace as not long after, a new specter appeared- the Sith. However, the Jedi and the Republic did not anticipate the threat that they posed, believing them to be rouge dark Jedi who would die out in a few years time. They couldn't be more wrong.


	38. Ch 38: Dawn of the Sith

Dawn of the Sith

After the war, we have very few, if any, extant writings from Ajunta Pall and as such we cannot rely upon his journal for his personal perspective like we were able to do for the Hundred Year Darkness. Instead, the information relayed in these next sections comes primarily from any surviving writings from other Dark Jedi exiles.

The former Dark Jedi aboard the transport watched as system after system flashed by. They knew that some of their former territories were located in the Stygian Caldera, including Korriban, but they had no way to control where they were going. They were in the cabin allowed to move around freely. The ship had several rooms with the necessities for survival both on a planet and in a ship for prolonged periods of time, but none of them had lightsabers or any way to get into the hyperdrive control system.

Eventually, one of them approached Pall and asked if he could help them with the problem. Pall agreed. He walked up to the front of the ship and began to meditate. Onlookers thought that he was scanning the cosmos for routes, for shatterpoints. Eventually he seemed to find what he was looking for. At once, Pall extended his hand out to empty space. There was a massive rending in the Force and suddenly in front of them appeared the massive gaping maw of hyperspace. Their craft was sucked in and they arrived in orbit around a rusted planet which they identified as Korriban. The ship scanned the planet and after identifying it as habitable, it slowly descended.

The Dark Jedi had last been on Korriban more than five years previously. They had killed the former Sith king and had set up an academy, using the hostile planet as a testing ground for new apprentices. However, due to a desire to keep the location of Korriban secret, they had abandoned it, leaving the native Sith species alone.

In the meantime, the Sith had come under the control of a new king who called himself Hakagram Graush II, claiming to be the son of the previous Sith king whom Pall beheaded when the Dark Jedi first took Korriban. The Dark Jedi had been mythologized. Many saw them as avatars of the gods, or at least demigod offspring.

When the Dark Jedi descended from their shp, many concluded that their gods had returned. This created quite an uproar among the Sith society, and news was sent to the king. Now Graush was seen as part divine as well, as all Sith kings were. He wasn't too thrilled about having to share power with others. Still, he sent messengers to greet them. However, the Dark Jedi didn't trust the king and for good reason. After all, if this king was really the son of the same Graush that Pall killed, this could be a trap. Even if he was not angry, he still probably didn't want to share power. The Dark Jedi told the messengers that they would be happy to meet the king, but that the king should come to their mountain rather than they come to the palace. The envoys were sent back.

In the meantime, the Dark Jedi began construction on lightsabers to replace the ones that they had broken. The people in the surrounding villages would often make pilgrimages to their mountain looking for blessings or imploring the Dark Jedi to heal them from various ailments. Pall and Syn were known to have been talented in Force healing techniques, and so they spent much of their time healing any visitors if they were able to. The villagers reverence for them only increased. They brought gifts, both food and materials. From these villagers, they gathered the first parts needed to construct their lightsabers.

The Sith priests, the Kissai, also made journeys to see the mysterious strangers. They wanted to verify weather or not the Dark Jedi were real. Very few had seen them when they first invaded Korriban, and so the Kissai were skeptical. However, once the Dark Jedi demonstrated their powers which were orders of magnitude above what even the king or the Kissai were able to perform, they took them to be the same and begged for the strangers to teach them their ways. The Dark Jedi agreed and they began to gather a large cult following. They became to be known as the Jen'jidai, a title signifying their divine status.

The priests were also able to futther help them on their quest to build lightsabers. They brought them the necessary materials for the machinery as well as crystals that they found or made.

A Note on Lightsabers:

Red lightsabers are the traditional lightsaber shade of the Sith Order. While many notable Dark Lords, such as Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, used different shades and others, such as Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh used Sith Swords instead, the most common choice of weapon has always been a red lightsaber.

While the Sith had always known how to build lightsabers since the days of Adas, they were rarely used in pre-exilic times. The reason for this is because of their low mass and lack of leverage against massive steel or crystal blades. When a lightsaber and Sith blade cross, the blade usually wins. The sword is far heavier as its blade contains weight and leverage which allows for greater momentum. The only advantage a lightsaber has is speed, but in a Sith society that values muscle over cunning, the lightsaber quickly became a sign of weakness used only by those who couldn't wield a Sith broadsword. Some of the Kissai continued to use them, but as they were priests these lightsabers were often ceremonial.

Lightsabers require a specialized gem in order to work. The gem is sturdy enough to resist the plasma of the blade and refined enough to allow the heating radiation to pass through ionizing the blade. Few worlds have gems that fit these requirements and even fewer have gems which possess a link in or presence in the Force enabling greater usability. Korriban is not one of the worlds that has these gems. As a result, the Sith used crystal furnaces to create the temperature and pressures required to make these gems which they inbuned with the Force as it cooked.

These crystals come in many colors. Without the Force, their neutral color is either silver or white, depending upon the matrix composition. In modern times, many Imperial Knights wield lightsabers with crystals like these. When infused with the Force in a pure state, they often turn green or yellow. The legendary Jedi masters Luke Skywalker and Jaden Korr used lightsabers with these types of crystal. But when infused with the power of the dark side, the blade usually glows red. Because the Sith from Korriban and Dromund Kaas did not have access to natural crystal caves, they would often use these synthetic red lightsaber crystals. Eventually they became a part of the Order itself.

The Betrayal:

When the king received word that the Jen'jidai were refusing to cooperate, he became angry but as they were becoming more and more popular by the day, he decided that he had to go see them, and hopefully kill them, lest they become too powerful. He left and made his way to them. They first communicated only through envoy, but eventually Pall agreed to meet the king at the foot of the mountain. The king demanded that Pall be unarmed and so he left his lightsaber in the mountain. They talked for a long while, but eventually they seemed to disagree about something. The king became angry and raised his sword, but Pall disarmed him with the Force, then catching the blade, he beheaded the king. The guards tried to stop him, but his superior Force powers prevented them from doing so.

When Pall returned to the mountain, the other Jen'jidai descended. They announced that they had killed the king meaning that they would be the new rulers of Korriban. The Sith people were happy for the change. They didn't care about politics and didn't like the king very much anyway. Plus, if the Jen'jidai were really the avatars of their pantheon, it makes sense that a mere half-divine king should yield to their power or be destroyed.

The Jen'jidai were taken back to the Sith palace with the Kissai and others who supported them. When they arrived they put down any further resistance and began to work on how to run their new regime. Pall seemed to believe that the Sith could, in a way, be civilized. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to recreate a Force-using order founded on his teachings. While the Sith, being savages, were not exactly his first choice, they were an entire Force-sensitive species. Even if the plan didn't work out very well, at least he would be bringing some type of civilized society to an otherwise barbarous planet. Better than letting the Sith rule themselves after all.

Pall was seen as the embodiment of Pomojema-Typhojem and as such he became the Jen'ari, a title with a similar etymology to Sith'ari but signifying that he was the King of the Gods, not just of the Sith people. Their first order of business was to install a stable government. Since the structure was already there, the Jen'jidai simply improved upon it. A major policy was an increased scientific literacy for the Kissai and the Zuguruk castes.

The Zuguruk caste was formerly one of the lowest castes. They were the Sith 'engineers' and 'technicians.' Usually they came from the lower peasant castes but were chosen for their advanced mental learning early on and given education in Sith training schools, often taught by the Kissai. They were responsible for helping the Kissai venerate the sacred technology of old- even though they barely knew how to use it let alone improve upon it. Remember, the Sith had a strange hybrid of advanced and primitive technology at their disposal. Melee weapons were common and most Sith used iron age tools, but the Kissai were tasked with attending to spacefaring technology and other marvels from older more advanced days. However, since the Sith didn't know how to advance on this technology, the Zuguruk were often tasked with simply engineering massive pyramids and other monuments for the Sith kings. They would also play around and perform experiments in pure mathematics and geometry, although the Sith society as a whole, predictably, regarded such speculation as a trivial waste of time.

The arrival of the Jen'jidai revolutionized this caste. They were encouraged to play around with math and geometry to their heart's content and were given access to technology that the Dark Jedi had previously left on Korriban from earlier visits.

A Change of Power:

Sorzus Syn, Remulus Dreypa, and Karness Muur wanted the Sith to expand across nearby space rather than being confined to Korriban. However, Pall made it his official policy that they would not invade the Republic. Syn, Dreypa, and Muur protested, even threatening to start an uprising. Pall relented and authorized the construction of a Sith fleet using what little equipment they had. However, Pall was tired of running the show. He figured that if the other Dark Jedi wanted power, they could have it. He wrote up a constitution that engineered a type of twelve-person council, headed by the reigning Dark Lord. Ten of the Jen'jidai were put on the council, as well as two native Sith. Pall then retired to a farm on one of the more fertile plateaus of Korriban where he could watch the sunrise in peace after stepping down from his one year long role as the first Dark Lord of the Sith.


	39. Ch 39: Power Plays

Power Plays

Karness Muur was chosen as the next Dark Lord, however, there was already plots against him. He and Dreypa were always rivals, and Syn wanted the throne to herself as well.

Sorzus Syn left behind extensive notes on various Sith alchemical texts left over from the pre-exilic period. She writes how she salvaged these ancient works which she then mined for their secrets. During and after the Hundred Year Darkness, she headed several archeological finds whose records luckily still survive to this day. While most Sith tombs were long raided, the most powerful were sometimes still intact thanks to their powerful spells and booby traps.

For example, she unearthed the tomb of Sakkra Kla, the crazed monotheist who lived circa. 17,000 BBY, and who was the most notable king before the Sith Renaissance which led to the rise of the Second Imperium. She also discovered the tombs of Nakgru and Wyrmuk the Undying, both chief figures in the Renaissance (circa. 15,800 BBY) who helped to discover and preserve the teachings of Adas. Wyrmuk was an ambitious Sith who served as vizier of the Imperium during the reign of Nakgru. However, he wanted the throne for himself and challenged Nakgru to an honor duel. They fought and Nakgru beheaded Wyrmuk. However, Wyrmuk was able to preserve his life by drawing upon the Force to go into a trance in which his brain used less blood, so that even when his head bled out, he was still clinging to life. Nakgru was amazed and decided to save him by attaching his head to life support. Wyrmuk still had to go to work and serve as the vizier afterwards. He really should have just quit while he was ahead, but his legacy did go on to inspire Simus (circa. 5,000 BBY) to perform the same trick.

When Syn recovered the scrolls and holocrons of these ancient Sith, she added them to her already vast collection of alchemical knowledge. Using them, she planned to construct three 'Great Amulets.' She designed the three to look like an insect with curved legs. The three amulets were designed with the loftiest goal in mind- immortality. To create these amulets she performed extensive research on the Sith species. She was fascinated at the phenomena of some of them living to be hundreds of years old compared to most sith who had lifespans much closer to those of the human species. She sought to find the biological basis for this phenomena and extract it into a type of potion. She was partially successful. While she was able to make a formula that under the right alchemical influence could regenerate damaged cells and ensure perpetual youth, this formula demanded a great toll in the form of a constant and powerful flow of Force energy from the outside.

The three amulets contained a special elixir which could be administered to a worthy host via a bite from their metal jaws. The potion would then course through their blood causing great agony but leaving their flesh open to the alchemical influence of the amulet. To activate the elixir, the host would have to drain large amounts of Force energy or reside in powerful Force nexuses for that the amulet could continue to hold influence. It could also consume midichlorian rich blood from its host to sustain its powers. The amulets also contained an additional trick to guarantee the safety of its host. In the event of death, the amulet had the capacity to store the life essence of its host in itself. This would only work if the host was able to hold onto their essence as if to become a Force ghost or shade, the type that is said to haunt Korriban, this spirit would then be transferred into the amulet for storage. This is a very interesting ability as it demonstrates a very early form of what would later come to be known as the Essence Transfer ability, which allows a Sith practitioner to transfer their life force from their own body into another host.

The first was created and given to Remulus Dreypa. Together, they infused it with the further power to be able to control massive leviathans. The second amulet took a lot longer to create. She worked with Karness Muur to create what would come to be known as the Muur Talisman. This talisman was infused with a special virus that allowed the amulet to alchemically transform its victims into mindless rakghouls which could then be controlled by the user.

A Note on Rakghouls:

Rakghouls were some of the most peculiar Sithspawn. Unlike most which were designed to be a certain way from birth, the Muur Talisman and its Rakghoul virus were able to infect and transform most sentient species into Rakghouls. This worked by having the virus infect its host over a period of several hours. The virus would specifically target midichlorians thereby giving it a link with the talisman. This special midichlorian bacteriophage is an incredibly sophisticated work of alchemy mush like the virus that made the Rakata deaf to the Force.

The victim's body would then grow hair at an increased rate and their skin would take on a strange color. Black fluid would often come from the victims eyes and other orifices. The final transformation would erode the victims mind, entering into a rabid state of madness and cannibalism. At this point, there would be too much nerve damage to fix. If the victims are not killed, they will mutate further beyond all recognition.

This plague had many incarnations throughout history claiming many lives.

The Conflict:

Syn created these amulets to stir up further resentment between Muur and Dreypa. Dreypa would desire the greater amulet and seek to obtain it possibly causing him to want to stage a coup. Furthermore, since both amulets made their wearers biologically immortal, or at least with perpetual regenerating cells, they would be more likely to make bold moves seeking to gain wealth and positions with a longer goal in mind. Finally, as they caused the wielder constant pain, the users would likely be more irate, but desiring the effects of perpetual regeneration, they would have to keep wearing it. Finally, the practical concern of powering the amulet placed further limits on them. Either they would never leave locations of power, or the amulet would have to consume blood making them weaker.

Meanwhile Syn desired to create a perfected amulet, one free from these limitations. It is unknown if she succeeded, but given the limitations of her formula, it is unlikely. In a ploy to trick Muur, Dreypa created a large oubliette. This creation could hold a living being in stasis for far longer than even carbonite could guarantee. He originally planned to imprison Muur in this device in order to prevent his Rakghoul plague from escaping, but he couldn't as Muur was assassinated before he could do so. The killer was none other than Tulak Hord.

The Return of Tulak Hord:

After his run in with the Xylan superweapons, Hord continued to live out his exile flying around in unknown space. His exploration team took very good maps as he figured that one day he would come back and formally conquer these unknown systems. He didn't particularly care when the Dark Jedi high command stopped calling as it meant that he could have more free reign. However, as the time of his exile drew to an end, he made his way back to the nearest known planet he could find: Korriban.

When he emerged into the system circa. 6,893 BBY, he was astonished to see a fleet made of of ships of a very antique design surrounding the planet. He didn't rush in at once but instead sent in spies to report on what they could find while he listened to radio signals coming from the planet. In a few days he was able to deduce what had happened.

Meanwhile on Korriban, under the watchful eyes of the Jen'jidai overlords, the Sith had experienced a massive technological leap. In only seven years, they went from a primitive society with vague knowledge of how to work half broken spacefaring technology, to a society capable of making improvements upon pre-existing technology. The Zuguruk caste was elevated to a new position of power and they were able to repair old warships and even build new ones based off their antique designs. Granted, this surge in technological advancement caused a massive famine in which tens of millions died as work was diverted from farming to industrialization in such a rapid manner, as what normally happens when a totalitarian government with unreasonably loyal citizens tries to make such a 'great leap forward' but, they figured, if it works, it works.

When Hord found out what had happened, he was disappointed, but in no time at all he was planning on how to conquer the planet. He decided to take it fast and suddenly to hopefully minimize loss of ships. He and a few of his followers boarded an outer system mining vessel and made their way to Korriban. When they got there, Hord found it much different from the tribal society he was used to. While he welcomed the development, something just felt off. However, it was the Sith Great Temple that really angered him. He saw Karness Muur, an outsider, on the throne.

He continued to inhabit the streets of Korriban for weeks afterwards getting a feel for the place. Eventually, he decided that he would stage a coup and take back the throne for the Sith. He found several dissenters who were also upset that an outsider dared to rule over them and inflict suffering on their world. They waited to plan it just right, and when the day came, his allies started a riot outside of the temple. The guards began firing on the crowd, and Hord and allies snuck in. The other guards tried to stop them, but Hord's abilities at that point were much too powerful.

He took Muur by surprise, but the reigning Dark Lord was still able to gather his strength and fight back. The fight was much shorter but just as fierce as their original duel had been. While in their first duel Muur held the advantage until the end, now with Muur's powers waning and Hord's just about to reach their peak, the tables had turned. Karness Muur was killed, his spirit lashing out in anger but being trapped in the amulet- much to the annoyance of later generations.

Sith Magnus:

Hord declared himself to be the new Dark Lord of the Sith, but not only that, he declared himself to be 'Sith Magnus.' This is an ancient title meaning 'all-powerful' or 'Emperor.' In the ancient days of feuding Sith kings and vassal states, it was a claim to legitimacy. It, in effect, meant 'bow down or be destroyed,' much like how the 'Darth' title was used during the New Sith Wars. It was a sign that the reigning dynasty had a challenger. The title was mainly used when a Sith usurper killed the reigning king. The title was used to signify that the usurper claimed the mantle of king, and that any of the kings relatives, apprentices, or other lords interested in the throne had better back down. It was a symbol that the usurper was more powerful than the vanquished king.

However, the title came with many dangers, manly that other lords or true heirs to the throne were rarely eager to give power to a new face. As a result, in the old days, when a rival lord killed the Sith king, said lord usually just sat back in their lordship while waiting for the political turmoil to die down. Usually the assassination would be but a step in a further political game. Usually, the lord would do so to move his own position of influence up or even into the throne legally, or sometimes, other lords would hold honor duels to decide. Very rarely was the title immediately claimed by a new dynasty, so in effect, when Hord did so, he claimed to be more powerful than the gods themselves.

This deserves a short discussion on the role of titles and their relationship to the mandate of kings. The Sith saw all of reality structured according to a great chain of being. This is reflected in the caste system. The Massassi warriors are above the slaves who do not even have citizenship, but even a Sith slave is above most aliens. The Zuguruk are above the Massassi, the Kissai are above the Zuguruk, and the Sith lords are above the Kissai. The Great Chain of Being extends this general concept. Below aliens and infidels are the beasts and below them the plants. Above the Sith lords is the Sith king, and above the king is the gods. Anyone who rises to the status of a king is symbolically adopted by the gods and becomes a demigod thereby rising above mortal Sith.

The only Sith who had fully divine status were the Darr-tah (phonetic link to 'Darth') and the Sith'ari. Darr-tah meant 'escape from death' i.e. one who has full divine status or an avatar of a god. The black-skinned Sith that Adas fought were examples of Darr-tah. The Sith'ari could also bless his children or faithful servants with this status. The Sith'ari was seen as the avatar of Typhojem-Pomojema, the king of the gods, and as such was a rank higher than even the Darr-tah. The Sith'ari was to the Darr-tah what the Darr-tah where to ordinary Sith kings. The Sith'ari was said to reincarnate at desperate times. There have been many exceptions in the past, for example, the heretic monotheist Sakkra Kla declared that there was only one god and he was its prophet, but that's the story for another time.

However, with the arrival of the Jen'jidai, they were seen as the embodiments of the twelve main members of the Sith pantheon. Therefore, each one was seen as a Darr-tah. However, Ajunta Pall was seen as the embodiment of Pomojema-Typhojem, the chief god, and therefore was above even them. To differentiate between the Sith'ari and Darr-tah of old, the equivalent titles of Jen'ari and Jen'jidai were created. The Jen'jidai were above anyone still claiming to be king, and the Jen'ari was above them.

The title 'Magnus,' basically declared the Sith in question to be eligible for the highest position on the board once the previous holder was killed. Hord had already killed Muur making him a Jen'jidai, but if he killed Pall, who's title stuck even after he stepped down, he would rise to the rank of Adas himself.

Within days Hord solidified his power base and forced the other Jen'jidai to submit. Some, such as Syn, reluctantly did so. Dreypa however, did not. However, he saw that resisting Hord would be senseless. After all, a civil war would only destroy resources. Dreypa's goal was to escape from Sith space and take revenge upon the Republic and the Jedi. While he would have prefered to be the reigning dark lord when that happened, given the current circumstances, he decided that a war with the Jedi was a 'now or never' type of affair. As a result, he led a massive rebellion against Hord, but instead of fighting him, they simply retreated to the border of Sith space, eager to fight a much greater enemy.


	40. Ch 40: Jedi vs Sith

Jedi vs Sith

The first true clash between Jedi and Sith occured in the year 6,893 BBY. Many historians like this date as it was the first conflict after the unification of the Dark Jedi Exiles and the Sith people only seven years previously.

Remulus Dreypa, who led the attack, did not intend to conquer the entire Galaxy in one go. The Dark Jedi had tried and failed to do that. Instead, he planned to conquer a few small frontier systems from which he could organize his new Sith Order and train rouge Jedi to infiltrate the nearby Republic.

After the Exile, the Dark Jedi had been cut off from the rest of the Galaxy. Not only was the Stygian Caldera almost impenetrable unless one knew the exact hyperlanes to travel on, but it also prevented hyperwave and subspace communications in and out. This in effect cut off Sith Space from the rest of the Galaxy. As a result, when Dreypa set out to invade the Republic, he had no idea what it would be like. He anticipated that due to the war, the Galaxy would be in an economic decline due to the destruction of life and resources, and that the far flung systems of the Galaxy would be, for the most part, on their own due to the centralized Republic government being ineffective in these circumstances. Furthermore, he anticipated that due to his force's small size that he could easily slip in and set up shop. He was wrong on all counts.

First of all, as mentioned in the previous chapters, the Republic's economy was doing very well indeed. The war had created a depression, but after it was over, systems far and wide were eager to take advantage of the new peace and set up trade. Additionally, far from being fragmented, many systems rejoined the Republic due to security and economic reasons. The Jedi, despite their loss of numbers, were eager to keep the peace.

The new hyperlanes that stretched out into previously unknown or backwater worlds needed protection. As there were still dark side cults still lurking out on the fringes of galactic society, they Jedi were often called on to ride the outbound flights to keep the crew safe and advise on dealing with any pirates or other adversaries.

First Encounter:

Dreypa's small fleet emerged from hyperspace outside of the Stygian Caldera. The exact coordinates are unknown due to lack of historical sources, but according to records of the Jedi patrol who first spotted them, they were orbiting around the planet Formos. They Jedi aboard the patrol had heard reports that a strange craft was in the area, and when they jumped in system, they could sense through the Force that something was amiss. Others were called in as they believed that they had come across a previously unknown dark side cult left over from the war.

The Jedi that were called in were mostly veterans from the Battle of Corbos and their new padawans. At the time, the still-living veterans of Corbos were seen as an elite unit in the Jedi Order and what passed for the High Council at the time wanted to use them as the pillars on which the future order would be built upon, and as such, it was not uncommon to have one Jedi veteran training two, three, or even more padawans at a time.

The first skirmish took place on the surface of Formos itself. The Jedi patrol had flown down to check on possible cultic activity and they came across a small battalion of Massassi warriors. The Jedi were unsure about what to do, but the Force-sensitive Massassi sensed that the Jedi were aware of their presence and they attacked. The Jedi were caught off guard and did not know how to fight such creatures. The Massassi killed several Jedi and forced the rest to retreat, although they suffered heavy casualties in the process. The Massassi then reported to Dreypa what had happened and he ordered an immediate retreat. However, before he could exit system, the Jedi reinforcements cut them off and they engaged in a short space battle. Dreypa's small fleet was able to retreat but on a different vector then planned.

The Jedi were able to track the vector and engaged the Sith fleet in a cat and mouse chase through the nearby systems until they emerged in orbit around the planet Kesh.

The Calamity of Kesh and the Doomed:

While in orbit around the Wild Space planet Kesh, the Sith fleet engaged the Jedi in a large space battle. The exact numbers and details are not remembered, but it resulted in the destruction of the small Sith fleet and their evacuation to the planet's surface. However, in the conflict, the vast majority of the Jedi ships were also destroyed resulting in fiery hulls and still-active nuclear warheads raining down on the planet's surface devastating large swaths of land. The event came to be known to the native Keshiri as the Great Calamity.

At this point, the records are even more sparse. Kesh is a world surrounded by unstable mass shadows caused by icy debry and rouge planetoids in the nearby systems. It is thought that the Jedi believed themselves to be trapped in system due to these hazards. In addition, due to massive nebulas and electrically charged black holes in the neighboring systems, their subspace communication equipment was also cut off. It is likely that this is why the Sith were forced to confront the Jedi fleet in the first place. Both fleets jumped in system only to realize that it is a trap.

The Jedi ships then decided to pursue their enemies on the ground. Dreypa took advantage of this as he was eager to continue the fight. He wanted to wipe out the Jedi for that he and the Sith with him could rule over the native Keshiri, thus creating their own dark side using faction. The war was likely fought against the Jedi in a guerrilla fashion. It is thought that the Jedi ships were either sabotaged by the Sith forces or the Jedi chose to destroy their hyperdrives to prevent the Sith from getting hold of them. Eventually, after an unknown period of time, Dreypa's forces turned against him. Somehow they were able to trap him in an Oubliette chamber, a type of powerful stasis casket. He would remain perfectly preserved in that casket for almost four thousand years.

A New Society:

The Sith remains then sued for peace. They surrendered to the Jedi and were welcomed into the fledgeling Jedi 'order.' They became known as the Doomed, although it is unknown if they chose that name for themselves or it was given to them by the Keshiri. The Doomed eventually became one people who formed an order based around the harmony of the Living Force and its presence on the planet and in their ancestors teachings.

It is thought that having to struggle and fight for survival on an unknown world is what led the Jedi to lessen their standards and accept parts of the dark side, or at least the dark side as it is found in nature, in the jungle. This is not unusual as the jungle, and the wilderness in general, seems to have that effect upon Force users, although it is unknown why. Ex Dark Jedi, after the Hundred Year Darkness, the Great Sith War, and the Jedi Civil War, have been known to retreat into the wilderness to find peace. When an entire group of Jedi is lost, their order often morphs into a strange parody of what it once was, such as is the case on the planet Haruun Kal. It seems as if the jungle acts as a type of nullifier. Jedi who pledge to uphold the light are corrupted, but those who have fallen into the depths of the dark's vice are saved. Perhaps the jungle, life in its purest state unaffected by sentient intent, leads those who dwell in it towards a more neutral path- neither holding living beings as sacred ends in themselves nor reveling in the elevation of the self above others. In all, the Jedi and Sith merged and became almost like the ancient Je'daii order they both descended from. They would remain that way for thousands of years in complete isolation from the rest of the Galaxy.

These events became legendary for the native Keshiri. They evolved into the legends of the Skyborn and the Otherside, two groups of rival gods. According to Keshiri mythology, the Skyborn are benevolent deities worshiped by all who dwelled in the stars. The Otherside are rival and evil deities who dwelled in the center of the world. According to the myth, the Great Calamity was the result of these two groups of gods going to war. It is thought that the Skyborn represented the Jedi and the Otherside as the Sith. Strangely enough, it seems as if this legend has its roots in an even more ancient myth.

According to the other myth, the planet Kesh was ravaged many times by a race from beyond the stars, known as the Destructors. The Destructors would continue to wipe out all civilization on a cyclic basis until the Protectors rose up to stop them. It is thought that in later years, the Protectors and the Skyborn were merged, and the Destructors and the Otherside were combined as well. However, this leaves a puzzle as the myth of the Protectors and Destructors dates from before the Great Calamity. Many thing that the Destructors cyclic destruction of all civilization is actually a reference to the Xylan and their superweapons being repeatedly tested. However, the identity of the Protectors remains much more mysterious. Many think that the actual Protector/Destructor myth is actually the buried memory of the Celestial-Rakata War, although it is unknown which side is which. Since the war only happened once, it is thought that the repeated devastation wrought by the Xylan gave rise to the legend that the Protector-Destructor war repeated until the Great Calamity when it morphed into the Skyborn-Otherside war.

The Doomed and the planet Kesh in general would come play a major role in Sith history, although not for another few thousand years. As they continued to live as a small and peaceful society, the Sith Empire in the Stygian Caldera flourished as well. In face, it was after the expulsion of Dreypa that the Old Empire's greatest conquer, Tulak Hord, took the throne.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: I hope to finish this story sometime around December- strangely enough about a year after I started writing, but as for now, updates will be few and far between.**_


	41. Ch 41: The Death of Ajunta Pall

The Death of Ajunta Pall

Around 6893-2 BBY, the Jen'jidai submitted to the authority of Tulak Hord after he had chased Dreypa out of the Stygian Caldera. The Sith Magnus would later come to be remembered by the Sith people as the ideal conquer and warrior, and many, most notably Naga Sadow, would envy his achievements and seek to replicate them. His claim to fame was his conquest of over a hundred worlds in his lifetime alone. In less than half a century, the Sith Empire expanded in size from only a few dozen systems to almost two hundred. At this point, the Empire stretched from one end of the hyperspace disrupting nebulae at one end of the Caldera to the other. The Empire would not again reach such a size until the life of Marka Ragnos almost two thousand years later.

The reason for Hord's success was in part the economic and structural power base created by the Jen'jidai when they sought to create a new and stable government out of the barbaric Sith tribes who inhabited Korriban before their arrival. However, it was not just the industrial framework that led to the Empire's expansion, but Hord's own power and leadership abilities. This is why upon his death, the Empire would drastically decrease in size.

However, before he could begin his campaigns, he had to take care of an old enemy, Ajunta Pall. Several years previously, Pall had stepped down from his role as Dark Lord of the Sith in favor of a quiet retirement upon one of the plateaus of Korriban. From what historians can gather based off extant records and Pall's own writings, he saw the title of Dark Lord as a mere role, one of many which he played throughout his life. However, once the government and with it social and economic power structures were in place, he saw no more use for this role. In many ways, Pall saw the act of creating a new society out of the barbaric tribes of Korriban as a way of performing, on a small scale, what he tried and failed to do on the Galaxy as a whole. Once the structure was in place, he could retire in peace. Perhaps he saw it as some type of atonement for all the evils he unleashed upon the Galaxy, although, given the famines and purges that followed when Muur and the other Jen'jidai took over, even this last act ended in more bloodshed. And it was this society that came to be bound to the will of the one person he never wanted to see in power again.

In the year 6892 BBY, Hord began to search for where Pall was hidden. Upon retiring, Pall had scattered all references to the plateau that he retreated to. He did not want to be followed, and he did not want one of his overly ambitious rivals to surprise him. Yet, it is impossible to hide for long when one has the resources of an entire planet at one's disposal, and within months Hord located Pall.

Pall's home was a small farm located upon one of the more fertile plateaus of Korriban far away from the Valley of the Dark Lords and the seat of Sith power. Hord considered destroying the homestead from orbit with turbolasers but decided against it. He wanted to visit Pall himself, to watch him die both for personal satisfaction and to make sure that he was dead, so he boarded a shuttle and rode down, landing a few hundred yards away from the house.

According to Hord's logs, Pall was waiting for him when he arrived. The former Dark Lord's face and body showed signs of age far beyond his fifty five years. According to reports, the body appeared to have blistered and burned long ago before healing, as if in his youth he had experienced prolonged exposure to hard radiation. However, what they were seeing was not the scars of radiation but of the Force.

Hord approached Pall and asked in amazement what someone of his talents was doing on a farm. Pall replied that he was trying to salvage what little he could of a life and warned Hord that one day he would realize that he had suffered a similar fate if he continued down his chosen path. Hord asked what he was talking about, and Pall explained that it was ambition, the will to strive and change the world that would one day consume him. Pall said that he had heard of Dreypa and his failed ambition and said that Hord's fate would be the same as Dreypa's.

Hord did not want to hear it, and he ignited his lightsaber. With a sigh, Pall did likewise. The fight was short and brutal. Throughout the fight, Pall attempted to use his superior power in the Force to his advantage, but unlike in their first duel, Hord was ready. He had trained and was able to counter Pall's own attacks as he concentrated on pressing his assault with the lightsaber. In the end, Pall was cut down, the lightsaber bisecting his chest straight through his heart and lungs. He was dead before he hit the ground as his body bled out.

After the fight, Hord ordered Pall's body to be embalmed and prepared for burial. He was determined to give Pall a king's funeral. However, this was obviously not to honor his memory. Instead, Hord hoped to solidify his own power and reputation by emphasizing how great Pall was with the implication being that Hord, as Pall's slayer, was greater. However, Pall was not buried in the Valley of Golg as all previous Korriban kings were. Instead, Hord symbolically buried Pall underneath his palace in the Valley of the Dark Lords. Due to Korriban's history, Pall was far from the first to be buried there, but he began the tradition of all post-Hord Dark Lords to see burial in the Valley of Dark Lords as the highest honor.

The tomb was built into a cave in the side of the Valley. Pall's mummified body was buried with his swords on his person. Overlooking the sarcophagus was a statue of the Dark Lord and guarding the entrance of the tomb was a series of war droids that had been created by the Star Forge. Finally, the entrance to the tomb was sealed with a large black obelisk. A final statue was erected above the entrance to the tomb overlooking the Valley and the Sith capitol. At the base of the statue and above the tomb's stone doorframe was the name carved in the ancient Sith tongue. It read 'The Jen'ari- King of Kings: Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair.'


	42. To My Kind Editor

To My Kind Editor:

I thank you for your letters and all your help you gave as I struggled to compile the hundreds of scattered facts and references that are the entirety of this present volume into a single, somewhat coherent, narrative. I apologize for any defects and errors- both grammatical and otherwise- that this present document contains, but I implore you to publish it as is as quickly as you can.

Yes- I do mean it- errors, tangents, philosophical reflections, and piecemeal references to later chapters that were never added and all. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to stop by for a cup of tea, and as such I regret to inform you that we will not be able to painfully sift through this jumbled mess together. I also apologize for the dry, battered, rusted-covered and sandy quality of the paper, but that's what happens when you spend as much time in the field as I do.

Speaking of which, I need you to run a small errand for me. As I said, it would be unwise for us to meet in person, and as such the manuscript for the next volume of this work will be hidden in the basement of the Glow Dome nightclub on the planet Adarlon in the Minos Cluster. Did you know that Adarlon contains some surprising connections to the Sith? You do now. My stay here has been quite enjoyable- and not just because of the attractive young dancers and the Corellian whiskey! In all seriousness, talk to Deena A'Daasha and she will allow you to enter the basement level. And don't worry about ghosts- I have already taken care of them.

In the footlocker in the basement, you will find a copy of my next manuscript as well as Ajunta Pall's silver-lined sword (the thing is over 7000 years old so do be careful) and the remains of Tulak Hord's mask. (again, please do be careful) I have also included a red lightsaber crystal, a copy of the _Ethics of War_ , and enough credits to pay the docking fee with enough left over for a drink or two.

Best wishes and may the Force go with you,

Ooffo Rancoofsis


End file.
